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ELIZABETH AND 
MARY STUART: 

THE BEGINNING OF THE FEUD 

BY 

FRANK ARTHUR MUMBY 



ILLUSTRATED 



BOSTON & NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

1914 



«, 






7 P 



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PREFACE 



Cf 



Mary Stuart's irresistible claims demand at least 
as large a share of my space as that devoted to the 
early reign and courtships of her rival on the English 
throne. Hence the present volume does not carry 
me so far as I had originally planned in the series 
in which I hope eventually to illustrate the history of 
England by means of contemporary letters. That 
I have not succeeded in steering an incontrovertible 
course in exploring the labyrinth of letters, written 
not only by the Queens themselves but also by those 
who helped to shape the destinies of both kingdoms 
in their day and generation, will surprise no one who 
has ventured to make an independent investigation 
of the documents of that embittered period. No other 
chapter in the whole history of the United Kingdom 
is so difficult to present in the form of an im- 
partial contemporary narrative as that which intro- 
duces the hapless Queen of Scots, about whose mysti- 
fying personality the last word will probably never be 
written. If the whole truth about the first phase of 
her rivalry with Elizabeth, and the fatal mistake of 
her marriage with Darnley, may not be found in the 
following chapters, the letters at least reveal the 
various views which were taken at the time, and, above 
all, recreate the atmosphere of the age as only such 
documents can ever succeed in doing. " Letters and 
dispatches, like journals entered day by day," as Sir 
George Cornewall Lewis wrote in one of his essays, 
" have this advantage over memoirs, that they exhibit 
faithfully the impressions of the moment, and are 
written without knowledge of the ultimate result. 
They are, therefore, more trustworthy than any narra- 
tive composed after the whole series of events has 



VI 



PREFACE 



been worked out, at a time when the narrator is 
tempted to suppress, or has learnt to forget, the 
proofs of his own want of foresight." Even where 
the letters are based on prejudice, or are obviously 
false, they are nevertheless essential to a true 
understanding of history, as showing some of the 
secret springs of foreign and domestic policy. 
Especially is this the case with the diplomatic 
intrigues of the early years of Elizabeth's reign, and 
the disputed course of events which led to the turning 
point in the tragedy of Mary Stuart, where the first 
irrevocable step was taken along the Via Dolorosa 
which was to end at Fotheringhay. Only when due 
allowance is made for these early developments is it 
possible to arrive at anything approaching to a true 
idea of Mary's character and personality. In the 
same epoch-making years also were laid the founda- 
tions of the policy which governed the whole of 
Elizabeth's reign. It seemed to me, therefore, better 
to do something like justice to this critical period than 
to crowd any of the later happenings into the present 
volume. The closing chapter of Amy Robsart's 
melancholy romance falls within its scope, as well as 
the first act of the tragedy of Mary Stuart, and the 
many intrigues, amorous and political, which began 
as soon as Elizabeth ascended the throne. All these 
may be traced, step by step, in the correspondence 
of those who watched every move with absorbing 
interest. For the new light on Mary Stuart and the 
Darnley match I am indebted to the late Mr. Andrew 
Lang, whose article on the subject in Blackwood's 
Magazine for July, 1907, was the first reference to 
Randolph's hitherto unpublished letters, now printed 
on pp. 349 — 57. Permission to reprint the extract 
from the letter to Sir Henry Sidney has been very 
kindly granted by Mrs. Andrew Lang and the editor 
of Blackwood'' 's ; and I owe it to the courtesy of the 
officials of the Department of Manuscripts at the 
British Museum that I am able to include the unpub- 
lished letter from the Egerton Manuscripts, the search 



PREFACE vii 

for which proved unexpectedly difficult. As before, 
I have to thank the Controller of His Majesty's 
Stationery Office for permission to print the letters 
from the Calendars of State Papers and the publica- 
tions of the Historical Manuscripts Commission. 
Messrs. Longmans were also kind enough to allow 
me to copy an occasional letter from Froude's History, 
as acknowledged in the text on each occasion. My 
indebtedness to the works of Professor Pollard, Dr. 
Hay Fleming, Mr. R. S. Rait, Father Pollen, Mr. 
T. F. Henderson, and other living authorities on the 
period dealt with, has I hope been made sufficiently 
clear in the course of my work. A full list will 
be found on pp. ix — x of the various works and 
collections from which most of the letters themselves 
have been selected. 

The portrait of Lord Darnley with his younger 
brother, which belongs to his Majesty, and is preserved 
at Holyrood Palace, is now reproduced by permission 
of the Lord Chamberlain. The photogravure frontis- 
piece of Queen Elizabeth is from a plate generously 
lent to me for the purpose by Mr. Werner Laurie, who 
used it originally for the life of the Earl of Leicester 
by Mrs. Aubrey Richardson, published under the 
title of " The Lover of Queen Elizabeth." A word 
of thanks is also due to Mr. Roger Ingpen and 
Messrs. Hutchinson & Co. for their ready help with 
the portrait of the Earl of Leicester, from a water 
colour drawing in the British Museum. The remain- 
ing illustrations are from paintings in the National 
Portrait Gallery, the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, 
and other collections. 

FRANK A. MUMBY. 

KlNGSGATE, 

THANET, 



CALENDARS OF STATE PAPERS AND 
OTHER COLLECTIONS FROM WHICH 
LETTERS HAVE BEEN SELECTED 

Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland and Mary Queen of 
Scots. Vols. I. and II., 1898 — 1900. 

Calendar of Spanish State Papers : Elizabeth, Vol. I., 1892. 

Calendar of Venetian State Papers, Vol. VII., 1890. 

Calendar of State Papers, Foreign, of the Reign of Elizabeth, 
Vols. I.— VII., 1863—70. 

Calendar of the Cecil Manuscripts at Hatfield House, Part I. : 
Historical MSS. Commission, 1883. 

" Burghley State Papers " : Samuel Haynes, 1740. 

" Papiers d'Etat relatifs a l'histoire d'Ecosse " : Teulet (Bannatyne 
Club), 3 vols., 1 85 1. 

" Hardwicke State Papers," 2 vols., 1778. 

Ellis's " Original Letters," Second Series, Vol. II., 1827. 

" Zurich Letters " (Parker Society), First Series, 1842 ; Second 
Series, 1845. 

" Correspondence of Matthew Parker " (Parker Society), 1853. 

" Annals of the Reformation," Strype [1721] : Clarendon Press 
Edition, 1822. 

" Full View of the Public Transactions in the Reign of Elizabeth " : 
Forbes, 2 vols., 1740 — 1. 

Sadler Papers, 3 vols., 1809. 

" Illustrations of British History " : Lodge, Second Edition, 3 vols., 
1838. 

" History of England " : Froude, Vol. VII., 1864. 

" Queen Elizabeth and her Times " : Wright, 2 vols., 1838. 

" Lives of the Queens of Scotland " : Strickland, Vol. II., 1850 — 9. 

" Lives of the Queens of England " : Strickland, Vol. III., 1840 — 8. 

" Letters of Mary Queen of Scots " : Strickland, 3 vols., 1842 — 3. 

" Recueil des Lettres de Marie Stuart " : Labanoff, 7 vols., 1844. 

" New Light on Mary Queen of Scots " : Andrew Lang, Blackwood' s 
Magazine, July, 1907. 



x STATE PAPERS AND OTHER SOURCES 

" Inquiry into the Death of Amy Robsart " : Pettigrew, 1859. 

" Report on the Pepys Manuscripts " : Historical MSS. Commission, 
1911. 

' Cabala," 3rd Edition, 1691. 

" Nugae Antiquse " : Harington, Edited by Park, 1804. 

" Egerton Manuscripts " : British Museum. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Preface .......... v — vii 

Calendars of State Papers and Other Collections 

from which Letters have been selected . . ix — x 

List of Illustrations xv 



CHAPTER I 

"daughters of debate " 

Elizabeth the Daughter of her Father — England " like a Bone 
between two Dogs" — Mary Stuart's Claim to the English 
Throne — Prince Eric of Sweden offered to Elizabeth — The 
Religious Settlement and the Marriage Problem — Eliza- 
beth's Secret Reason for remaining Unmarried — Lord 
Robert Dudley first Favourite — Archduke Ferdinand's 
Suit — Pickering's Rivalry — Archduke Charles's Suit — 
II Schifanoya's Picture of Court Life in England — Knox 
and his "First Blast" — Mary Stuart's Secret Treaty with 
the Guises — Her dim Recollection of Scotland — Arran's 
Claim to the Scottish Throne — His Reception by Elizabeth 
— Mary Stuart becomes Queen of France — Her Mother at 
Bay in Scotland — Spanish Plot against Elizabeth — Her 
Support of Scottish Rebels — Arran's Secret Visit . i — 47 



CHAPTER II 

PLOTS AND SCANDALS 

How Elizabeth Hoodwinked the French Ambassador — 
England's Weakness — Quadra and the Austrian Match — 
Alleged Plot against Elizabeth and Dudley — Scandalous 
Tales — Appeasing the Catholics — Squabbles among Eliza- 
beth's Suitors — Dudley Suspected of Designs Against his 
Wife's Life — Sir Thomas Chaloner's Warning — The 
Scottish Rebellion — Knox on the Beginning of the 
Struggle — Siege of Leith — Besiegers Plead for Elizabeth's 
Help — Bothwell Captures English Money Intended for the 
Rebels — Elizabeth's Denials — Cecil's Despair — The 
Deciding Factor — Protest of the Catholic Bishops . 48 — 85 



xii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER III 

THE SIEGE OF LEITH 

PAGE 

Elizabeth's Intervention in Scotland — Mary of Guise Recovers 
her Capital — A Forged Letter — Elizabeth's Terms — The 
" disordered Irishry " — Quadra's Fears — Dudley " Ruining 
the Country" — The Treaty of Berwick — How Winter 
arrived in the Firth of Forth — French Designs Against 
England — Elizabeth's Proclamation — The Tumult of 
Amboise — Philip's Need of Money — Glajon's Mission — 
His Treachery — The French Ambassador's Protest — 
Elizabeth's Angry Retort — The Siege of Leith — Mary of 
Guise takes Refuge in Edinburgh Castle — Her Heroism — 
Mary Stuart's Grief — The Disastrous Assault upon Leith, 
May 7, 1560 — Elizabeth Determined to Wipe out the 
Disgrace — Death of the Queen Regent of Scotland — 
Treaty of Edinburgh — Mary Stuart and Francis II. 
repudiate it 86 — 134 



CHAPTER IV 

THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 

Dudley's Ambitious Designs — Arran's Suit Revived — A Crowd 
of Rivals — The Tragedy of Amy Robsart — Quadra's 
Account — Objections to it — Dudley sends Thomas Blount 
to Investigate — Inquest and Verdict — Dudley Disgraced 
but Restored to Favour — Public Opinion — Throckmorton 
Warns Elizabeth — Mary Stuart on her Scottish Subjects — 
Why she Refused to Ratify the Treaty of Edinburgh — 
Her Claim to the English Arms — Death of Francis II. — 
The Griefstricken Queen — Elizabeth's Opportunity — 
Throckmorton told to Mind his own Business — Dudley's 
Marriage with Elizabeth Seriously Discussed — Philip's 
Half-hearted Support — Elizabeth Declines to Receive 
the Papal Envoy — A Venetian's Portrait of Elizabeth in 
her Prime — His Picture of her England . . . 135 — 182 



CHAPTER V 

mary stuart's home-coming 

Mary Stuart in the Matrimonial Market — Her Scottish Sub- 
jects ready to Restore their Allegiance and Support her 
Claim to the English Succession — Mary Granted Freedom 
of Worship and Arranges to Return — Lethington's Assur- 
ance of Fidelity — Mary still Declines to Ratify the Treaty 
— Elizabeth's Warning to the Scottish Estates — She 
Declines Mary a Safe Conduct through England — Her 
Refusal to Recognise Mary's Claim — Knox Warns Eliza- 
beth Against his own Sovereign — Lady Catherine Grey's 
Disgrace — Mary Stuart's Return — Final Interviews with 



CONTENTS xiii 



Throckmorton— Farewell to France — Her Reception in 
Scotland — Knox Makes her Weep — Rival Queens in the 
Marriage Market — A Famous Letter from Knox — Enter 
Darnley — Lady Lennox under Arrest — Secret Proposal of 
Marriage to Mary — Cecil's Lament — Frank Correspondence 
between Mary and Elizabeth — Scandalous Tales of Scottish 
Bishops — Ascham's Portrait of Elizabeth . . . 183 — 226 



CHAPTER VI 



ELIZABETH AND MARY SWORN FRIENDS 

Elizabeth Helps the Huguenots and Hopes to Recover Calais 
— Plot against the Spanish Ambassador — Betrayed by his 
Secretary — Rumours of Elizabeth's Marriage with Dudley 
— Failure of Proposed Meeting between Mary and Eliza- 
beth — An Exchange of Diamonds — Arthur Pole's Abortive 
Plot — The Treaty of Hampton Court — Elizabeth's Letter 
to Mary on the Subject — Her Dangerous Illness — Solemn 
Protest Regarding Dudley — Mary Stuart's Expedition 
against Huntley — Declares Unalterable Friendship for 
Elizabeth — Knox Denounces her Amusements — Bothwell 
Escapes from Edinburgh and is Arrested in England — The 
English Expedition to France — Fall of Rouen — Elizabeth's 
Encouragement to Warwick — The Disaster of Dreux — 
Princess of Conde's Appeal to Elizabeth — Assassination of 
the Duke of Guise — Parliament Petitions Elizabeth to 
Settle the Succession Problem — Her Reply — New Laws 
and the " Thirty-Nine Articles " . . " . . 227 — 266 



CHAPTER VII 

LOVE AND WAR 

The Chastelard Affair — Lethington's Mission to London — 
Discusses the Prospects of Mary Stuart's Marriage with 
Don Carlos — Elizabeth Offers the Hand of Lord Robert 
Dudley — Philip II. Spoils another Opportunity — Catholic 
Support for Mary Stuart in England — Why Elizabeth 
Refused to Nominate Mary as her Successor — Huntingdon's 
Letter of Loyalty — End of the First Religious War in 
France — Elizabeth Refuses to Evacuate Havre — War- 
wick's Fight against Hopeless Odds — Don Carlos and 
Mary Stuart — Elizabeth's Warning on the Subject — Death 
of Bishop Quadra — Closing Scenes at Havre — The Plague 
Spreads to England — Lady Catherine Grey and Lord 
Hertford Removed for Safety — Lady Catherine's Dis- 
illusioned Hopes — Elizabeth's Love of Hunting and Arch- 
bishop Parker's Love of Venison .... 267 — 301 



xiv CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VIII 

LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 

PAGE 

Elizabeth's new Matrimonial Negotiations — Cecil Philosophizes 
— Fears of a French Invasion — Mary and Lord Robert 
Dudley — Peace Declared between England and France — 
John Hales's Book on the Succession — Reception of the 
new Spanish Ambassador — Elizabeth's Anxiety Regarding 
Mary Stuart's Marriage — Dudley again seeks Spanish 
Support for his Alliance with Elizabeth — Darnley and his 
Mother at Court — Her Majesty's Visit to Cambridge — 
Coolness Between Elizabeth and Mary — Melville's Mission 
to the English Court — Dudley Disclaims Responsibility 
for his Proposed Marriage with Mary — Melville's Famous 
Interview with Elizabeth — Dudley created Earl of 
Leicester — Elizabeth Plays a Trick on Guzman — She 
Declares Herself a Catholic at Heart — Young King of 
France a Suitor for Elizabeth's Hand — Mary Stuart, 
Leicester, and Darnley — Cecil's Despair — The Thames 
Frozen Over — Guzman's Opinion of Cecil and Leicester — 
Was Mary Willing to Marry Leicester ? — Her Promise to 
Randolph — Randolph's Congratulations to Leicester — 
His Consternation on Hearing of Darnley' s Permission to 
enter Scotland — Darnley's Arrival and Reception — 
Bothwell's Uninvited Return and Departure — New Light 
on the Darnley Match 302 — 358 



CHAPTER IX 

THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 

Darnley's True Character — Mary's Infatuation — Elizabeth 
Suspected of Double-dealing in the Matter — She Woos the 
Catholic-Spanish Party — Her Ideas Regarding Marriage — 
Sends Throckmorton to Edinburgh — Lethington sent by 
Mary to London — His Dealings with the Spanish Am- 
bassador — Philip Approves of the Darnley Match — 
Scotland's Disapproval — Mary and Darnley's Measles — 
Creates Him Earl of Ross — Promises Throckmorton not 
to Marry for Three Months — Darnley's Arrogance — Mary 
Believed to be Bewitched — Riccio's Influence — Protestant 
Lords Organise Revolt — Elizabeth Commits Darnley's 
Mother to the Tower — Mary Sends a Fresh Ambassador 
to London — Good News from Spain — Mary and Darnley 
Married — -The Turning Point in Mary's Career . . 359 — 390 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Queen Elizabeth. After the Hatfield Portrait 

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. From a 
water-colour drawing in the British Museum by- 
George Perfect Harding, after an original 



Frontispiece 



painting Facing 14 

38 



Francis II. of France. After the portrait by- 
Francois Clouet at Hampton Court . 



John Knox. After the portrait in the National 
Portrait Gallery ....... 

Mary Stuart in Widow's Dress. After the 
portrait by Francois Clouet in the Bibliotheque 
Nationale, Paris ... ... 

Catherine de' Medici 

Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine. After the por- 
trait in the Bibliotheque des Arts et Metiers 

Lord Darnley, with his Younger Brother. After 
the painting in His Majesty's collection at 
Holyrood Palace 



70 

160 
228 

348 
378 



ELIZABETH AND 
MARY STUART 



CHAPTER I 

" DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE " 

Elizabeth the Daughter of her Father — England "like a Bone 
between two Dogs " — Mary Stuart's Claim to the English Throne 
— Prince Eric of Sweden offered to Elizabeth — The Religious 
Settlement and the Marriage Problem — Elizabeth's Secret 
Reason for remaining Unmarried — Lord Robert Dudley first 
Favourite — Archduke Ferdinand's Suit — Pickering's Rivalry- — 
Archduke Charles's Suit — II Schifanoya's picture of Court life 
in England — Knox and his "First Blast" — Mary Stuart's 
Secret Treaty with the Guises — Her dim Recollection of 
Scotland — Arran's Claim to the Scottish Throne — His Recep- 
tion by Elizabeth — Mary Stuart becomes Queen of France — 
Her Mother at bay in Scotland — Spanish plot against Elizabeth 
— Her Secret Support of Scottish Rebels — Arran's Secret Visit. 

Grave doubts, in more ways than one, have been cast 
upon the legitimacy of Queen Elizabeth's birth, but almost 
every outstanding trait in her character stamped her as a 
true daughter of Henry VIII., eager for power and popu- 
larity, insatiable in personal vanity. Like her father, 
too, she was English to the finger-tips — not half Spanish 
like her predecessor, as she took care to remind her 
ambassadors at the Peace Conference which had been inter- 
rupted by Mary's death. Just as Henry VIII. , nearly half a 
century before, had been hailed with enthusiasm by a nation 
which had reason to rejoice in the magnificent promise of 
his youth, so was Elizabeth's accession greeted by the whole 
of Protestant England, as well as by many of the Catholics, 
who, putting their country before their religion, were equally 
tired of the Spanish yoke. She soon made it clear to Philip II. 
that she was as determined as ever her father had been to 

E.M.S. b 



2 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

rule in fact as well as in name : that the destinies of England 
were no longer to be shaped under the Spaniard's guidance, 
as he had lately shaped them — to his own ambitious ends — 
as Consort of Mary I. The new Queen was astute enough, how- 
ever, to make this clear to her widowed brother-in-law without 
mortally offending him, well knowing that England, as yet, 
was not strong enough to stand alone. It was well for Queen 
and country that both the rulers of Spain and France had their 
hands full at this time with the alarming growth of heresy in 
their own dominions, and that the war which had just been 
patched up by the Peace of Cateau-Cambresis had left them 
with their coffers empty. Otherwise Philip might have 
responded to the warnings of his ambassador, the fiery 
Feria, that unless he pressed his claims by force of arms if 
necessary, England, and all that England meant to him, 
would slip through his fingers. Henry II. of France, also, 
might have shown his teeth on behalf of his prospective 
daughter-in-law, Mary Stuart, through whom, as great- 
grand-daughter of Henry VII., he had hopes of adding Eng- 
land to what he already regarded as his Scottish Kingdom. 
In his eyes — as in those of all good Catholics — Elizabeth 
was illegitimate, and he did his best to induce the Pope to 
excommunicate her. Failing in this, and not daring to 
oppose her accession, with Spain ready in that event to 
spring at his throat, he nevertheless, when Mary I. died, 
caused his daughter-in-law to be proclaimed in Paris as 
Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland. Thus early was 
the quarrel begun between the Queens whose rivalry was 
to end only with the tragedy of Fotheringay nearly thirty 
years later. Mary's claim persuaded many people at the 
time of Elizabeth's accession that England was destined to 
fall to the share of France if Spain gave her half a chance. 
" To make a hard comparison," as an English agent in 
Flanders said at the time, " England may be likened to a 
bone thrown between two dogs." 1 That also was the 
opinion of foreigners who, like Feria, either failed to under- 
stand, or wilfully misconstrued the new-found strength of 
England's position now that most parties were prepared, 
for the time being at least, to accept Elizabeth as Queen. 

1 Foreign Calendar, 1559 — 60, II., p. 3. 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 3 

The following is the continuation of Feria's letter, in which, 
after Philip's decision to marry the French King's eldest 
daughter, Elizabeth of Valois — Elizabeth of England having 
declined him with thanks — the Count told his master, 
frankly and bitterly, that " we have lost a kingdom body 
and soul : " 

THE COUNT DE FERIA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, April 11, 1559. 

. . . Now that God has deigned to send this great 
boon of peace to Christendom, and your Majesty is 
more at leisure to attend to other obligations, I think 
it is time to consider how things are going to end 
here. This business is divided into two heads, first, 
that of religion, and whether your Majesty is bound 
in this respect I do not inquire, although the 
Catholics claim that notwithstanding the country 
having been at the disposal of your Majesty to be 
treated as you wished, it has come to its present 
pass. The other head is the question of the State, 
and the necessity of preventing the King of France 
from dominating the kingdom, for which object he 
has two circumstances so favourable to him, namely, 
the just claims of the Queen of Scots, and the great 
ease with which he could take possession owing to 
the miserable state in which the country is, as I have 
informed your Majesty several times since I came 
hither, and I think it has been growing worse every 
hour. I have done my best to carry out your 
Majesty's commands to try and tranquillise the 
country and please the Queen, and to hold my hand 
in religious affairs, and at the same time to push 
them on to make peace, without any responsibility 
weighing on your Majesty with regard to the con- 
ditions under which it was made, and this I have 
succeeded in doing, as your Majesty is more free than 
ever therefrom. But it behoves me to consider 
whether, with things as they are, your Majesty 
can be assured of that which is desirable, because 

b 2 



4 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

as I understand — leaving aside God's affairs and 
religious matters unredressed — now that these people 
are better able to do as they like than at any time 
since this woman became Queen, all the time which 
maybe allowed them to carry out their heresies will 
be pernicious to the tranquillity and quietude of the 
country, and may give rise to tumult. 

And besides this, whenever the King of France 
finds means in Rome to get this woman declared 
a heretic, together with her bastardy, and advances 
his own claim, your Majesty will be more perplexed 
what to do than at present, because I do not see how 
your Majesty could in such case go against God and 
justice, and against the Catholics, who will doubtless 
join him (the King of France) if he comes with the 
voice of the Church behind him. To let him take the 
country, which he will do with so much ease that I 
dread to think of it, would be to my mind the total 
ruin of your Majesty and all your States, and seeing 
things in this light, as I do, and to fail to inform your 
Majesty, would, in my opinion be a crime worthy of 
punishment both towards God and your Majesty. 
They tell me the Swedish ambassador has again 
pressed the matter of the marriage, and told the 
Queen that the son of the King his master was still 
of the same mind, and asked for a reply to the letter 
he brought last year. 1 The Queen replied that the 
letter was written when she was Madam Elizabeth, 
and now that she was Queen of England he must 
write to her as Queen, and she would give an answer. 
She did not know whether his master would leave 
his kingdom to marry her, but she would not leave 
hers to be monarch of the world, and at present she 
would not reply either yes or no. With this message 

1 This was during the last months of Mary's reign — a critical 
period for Elizabeth, then living in retirement at Hatfield and 
careful to make no false move which might place in jeopardy her 
rights to the succession. The King of Sweden had sent her a secret 
proposal for her hand, on behalf of his eldest son Eric, but she had 
declined to enter into any negotiations of the kind which were 
not first submitted to Mary. 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 5 

a secretary who came here this winter was despatched, 
the ambassador remaining here. About a week ago 
this secretary came back and brought a grand present 
of tapestries and ermine for the Queen, and says that 
his master will send very shortly one of the principal 
lords of his kingdom to treat of the marriage. He 
had audience of the Queen yesterday. I do not know 
what passed. . . . 

I had written thus far three days ago, and have 
detained the post in the hope of seeing the Queen before 
despatching the letter. I have not seen her, but in 
order to keep your Majesty well informed I have 
thought best to send it off. The only thing fresh 
that I can say is that no class of people in the 
country, so far as I know, is pleased with the way in 
which your Majesty has made peace. The Catholics 
are grieved that your Majesty should have married 
away from here, and the heretics are in a state of great 
alarm at the thought that everybody is arming against 
them. The Queen has already declared in Parliament 
that she will not be called head of the Church, whereat 
the heretics are very dissatisfied. Cecil went yester- 
day to the lower house and told them from the Queen 
that she thanked them greatly for their goodwill in 
offering her the title of supreme head of the Church, 
which out of humility she was unwilling to accept, 
and asked them to devise some other form with 
regard to the supremacy or primacy. He was 
answered that it was against the word of God and 
the Scripture, and they were surprised at his coming 
to them every day with new proposals and objections. 

The heretics — as Feria persistently called the Reformers, 
who had always regarded Elizabeth as the heroine of their 
religion, had expected more than she was prepared to give 
immediately upon her accession. It was no part of her 
policy to rush matters in this direction. No ruler ever 
ascended the throne of England who understood so well the 
art of keeping people friendly by postponing their hopes — 
" to shelve business with fair words " as Feria once expressed 



6 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

it — and though everyone knew that England was drawing 
farther and farther away from Rome, as well as from Spain, 
there was nothing in the shape of a sudden resolution to 
drive the Catholics to revolt. Like her indispensable Secre- 
tary of State, the wise but not heroic Cecil, she had trimmed 
her religious sails discreetly through the stormy years of 
Mary's reign after accepting the varied forms of Protestantism 
under Edward VI. Probably she did not care enough one 
way or the other to risk more than was absolutely necessary 
now that she was herself seated on the throne. Calvinism 
she disliked with some of her father's hatred of Lutheranism, 
especially after Knox's " Blast of the Trumpet against the 
Monstrous Regiment of Women "; yet to declare herself a 
Catholic and acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Pope would 
have been tacitly to admit her own illegitimacy, for had not 
Rome pronounced as invalid her mother's marriage to 
Henry VIII. ? So it suited her plans best to let her future 
plans unfold themselves gradually, rather than to bring about 
the sudden upheaval hoped for by the zealous Reformers 
who had hurried back from exile to England as soon as they 
received the eagerly awaited news of Mary's death. Their 
disappointment at the slow realisation of their hopes may be 
seen in the letter from Dr. Jewel, afterwards Bishop of Salis- 
bury, to the great Protestant theologian with whom he had 
stayed at Strasburg and Zurich after escaping from the 
Marian persecutions in 1555 : 

JOHN JEWEL TO PETER MARTYR. 

["Zurich Letters," First Series.] 

London, April 14, 1559. 

Our friend Sandys 1 has done me much wrong; 
for, notwithstanding I had already written to you, 
though I earnestly besought him not to do so, he 
sent you his own letter unaccompanied by mine. 
However, except that I feel this duty of mine has 
long been owing to you, nothing has hitherto occurred 
which it would give you much pleasure to hear. 

1 Dr. Edwin Sandys, formerly Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, 
afterwards successively Bishop of Worcester, Bishop of London and 
Archbishop of York. 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 7 

[Queen] Mary and the Marian times ! With how 
much greater tenderness and moderation is truth now 
contended for, than falsehood was defended some 
time since ! Our adversaries acted always with 
precipitancy, without precedent, without authority, 
without law ; while we manage every thing with so 
much deliberation, and prudence, and wariness, and 
circumspection, as if God Himself could scarce retain 
His authority without our ordinances and precautions ; 
so that it is idly and scurrilously said, by way of joke, 
that as heretofore Christ was cast out by His enemies, 
so He is now kept out by His friends. This dilatoriness 
has grievously damped the spirits of our brethren, 
while it has wonderfully encouraged the rage and 
fury of our opponents. Indeed, you would hardly 
believe with how much greater boldness they now 
conduct themselves than they ever did before ; yet 
the people everywhere, and especially the whole of 
the nobility, are both disgusted with their insolent 
exultation, and exceedingly thirsting for the gospel. 
Hence it has happened that the Mass in many places 
has of itself fallen to the ground, without any laws 
for its discontinuance. If the Queen herself would 
but banish it from her private chapel, the whole thing 
might easily be got rid of. Of such importance 
among us are the examples of princes. For whatever 
is done after the example of the sovereign, the people, 
as you well know, suppose to be done rightly. She 
has, however, so regulated this Mass of hers, (which 
she has hitherto retained only from the circumstances 
of the times,) that although many things are done 
therein which are scarcely to be endured, it may yet 
be heard without any great danger. But this woman, 
excellent as she is, and earnest in the cause of true 
religion, notwithstanding she desires a thorough 
change as early as possible, cannot however be 
induced to effect such change without the sanction 
of law ; lest the matter should seem to have been 
accomplished, not so much by the judgment of 
discreet men, as in compliance with the impulse of 



8 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

a furious multitude. Meanwhile, many alterations 
in religion are effected in parliament, in spite of the 
opposition and gainsaying and disturbance of the 
bishops. These however I will not mention, as they 
are not yet publicly known, and are often brought on 
the anvil to be hammered over again. . . . 

We have as yet heard nothing respecting the 
Queen's marriage, an event which we all desire most 
earnestly. Farewell, my father, and much esteemed 
master in Christ. Yours wholly, 

John Jewel. 

The marriage problem probably troubled Elizabeth a good 
deal more than the religious settlement. For the time being 
the statutory religion was that of the Roman Church, and 
she had no intention of changing it without the formal 
sanction of Parliament. The question of a husband, how- 
ever, could be settled by herself alone. It is only by a full 
understanding of her peculiar position that it is possible to 
arrive at a true estimate of her subsequent conduct. Elizabeth 
was either an abandoned flirt or a victim of cruel circum- 
stance which she was able to turn to England's great 
advantage. The truth seems to be that " she was not as 
other women," as Mary Stuart wrote in years to come on 
the authority of both Lady Lennox and Lady Shrewsbury. 
Ben Jonson's coarse explanation in his " Conversations with 
Drummond," and other corroborative evidence, 1 clearly 
suggest that Elizabeth knew that she was physically 
incapable of motherhood. If this were so it would account 
for such strange outbursts as she poured into the sorely- 
tried ears of the Earl of Sussex, years later, when almost 
checkmated by one of Alencon's despairing moves. Marriage, 
she protested, had always been repugnant to her, " and she 
hated it more every day, for reasons which she would not 
divulge to a twin-soul, if she had one, much less to any 
living creature." 2 Some hint of this disability is conveyed 
in the last paragraph of Feria's next letter to the Spanish 

1 One of Melville's objections to the suit of the Duke Hans 
Casimir was that he had heard that Elizabeth knew herself incap- 
able of bearing a child (see p. 302). 

2 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, Vol. III., p. 351. 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 9 

King, which is worth giving at length for its intimate details 
of the discussion in which the Queen closed her confession 
of faith by declaring that " she hoped to be saved as well as 
the bishop of Rome " : 

COUNT DE FERIA TO PHILIP II. 
[Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

April 29, 1559. 

I received your Majesty's letter of the 24th inst. 
on the 27th and went to the palace the next day. 
After giving your Majesty's letter to the Queen 
I spoke to her in conformity with what had been 
written to me. She heard me as she had heard 
me many times before, only that on this occa- 
sion I spoke in your Majesty's name. Although I 
tried to frighten her all I could, I kept in view the 
necessity of not offending her, as they have preached 
to her constantly that your Majesty and the King of 
France hold her of small account, and she thinks 
that the only thing she needs is to get rich. I 
smoothed her down a good deal in this respect, 
making her understand that your Majesty was 
prompted only by your great affection for her, and 
considered her harm or advantage as your own. 
She answered amiably that she thanked your Majesty 
for your message. Subsequently in conversation with 
me she said three or four very bad things. One was 
that she wished the Augustanean confession [other- 
wise the confession of Augsberg] to be maintained in 
her realm, whereat I was much surprised and found 
fault with it all I could, adducing the arguments 
I thought might dissuade her from it. She then 
told me it would not be the Augustanean confes- 
sion, but something else like it, and that she 
differed very little from us, as she believed that God 
was in the sacrament of the Eucharist, and only 
dissented from three or four things in the Mass. 
After this she told me she did not wish to argue 
about religious matters. I told her neither did I, but 
desired to know what religion it was that she wanted 



io ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

to maintain, as I understood that even those who 
were concerned in it were not agreed one with the 
other, as was the case with all the other heretics in 
Germany and everywhere else, and I was terrified to 
see that whereas the other princes were laying down 
their arms in order to cope with heresy, she with her 
kingdom tranquil and Catholic, was doing her best to 
destroy religion ; and besides this, that she wanted to 
revoke the good and holy laws that God, your 
Majesty, and the late Queen had enacted here. If 
for no other reason than the great obligations she 
owed to your Majesty she should reconsider this 
matter. I for my part had done my best that your 
Majesty should not hear of the small respect that had 
been paid you in certain things, so as to maintain the 
good relations which I desired to exist between you, 
but that the present state of things was very grave, 
and so notorious that your Majesty could not fail to 
hear of it from other quarters even if I did not inform 
you. She answered that she only intended to revoke 
laws that had been passed by the late Queen before 
she married your Majesty. I told her it was all one, 
as they had been confirmed and upheld after her 
marriage. She reminded me that she was her sister, 
but I pointed out how different one obligation was 
from the other. 

She also said that your Majesty well knew she had 
always been of the same opinion, and the Queen as 
well, but I assured her that your Majesty had never 
heard such a thing. She was very emphatic in 
saying that she wished to punish severely certain 
persons who had represented some comedies in which 
your Majesty was taken off. I passed it by and said 
that these were matter of less importance than the 
others, although both in jest and earnest more respect 
ought to be paid to so great a prince as your Majesty, 
and I knew that a member of her Council had given 
the arguments to construct these comedies, which is 
true, for Cecil gave them, as indeed she partly 
admitted to me. 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" n 

She then said that as these were matters of 
conscience, she should in life and death remain of 
the same way of thinking, and would be glad of three 
hours' talk with your Majesty. At the end of the 
colloquy she said she hoped to be saved as well as 
the bishop of Rome. I told her of the good offices 
your Majesty had rendered to her with the Pope, in 
order that he should not proceed against her, and 
asked her not to let them persuade her that this was 
a small matter, as for a schism less grave than 
heresy, a King of Navarre had been deprived of his 
kingdom by a sentence of the Pope, and remained 
without it to this day. ... It is very troublesome to 
negotiate with this woman, as she is naturally 
changeable, and those who surround her are so blind 
and bestial that they do not at all understand the 
state of affairs. 

They talk a great deal about the marriage with 
Archduke Ferdinand, and seem to like it, but for my 
part I believe she will never make up her mind to 
anything that is good for her. Sometimes she 
appears to want to marry him, and speaks like a 
woman who will only accept a great prince, and then 
they say she is in love with Lord Robert [Dudley] and 
never lets him leave her. If my spies do not lie, 
which I believe they do not, for a certain reason 
which they have recently given me, I understand she 
will not bear children, but if the Archduke is a man, 
even if she die without any, he will be able to keep 
the kingdom with the support of your Majesty. I am 
of this opinion, and the reasons I have shall be placed 
before your Majesty when I arrive. I beg your 
Majesty to order this business of the Archduke's 
marriage to be well-considered and discussed, as the 
tranquillity of Christendom and stability of your 
Majesty's dominions depend upon it. . . . 

The Queen's repeated declarations in favour of single 
blessedness were all the harder to believe when she knew, 
as well as did her anxious Councillors, that an heir to the 



12 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

throne would have strengthened her position enormously. 
Whatever it was, her secret suited England's policy as none 
of her statesmen at the time could realise. It enabled her to 
play the lover with impunity until every marriageable prince 
in Christendom had been tempted with her hand, and until 
England's two great rivals, France and Spain, were so crippled 
as to leave the balance of power in Elizabeth's hands. Per- 
haps it also accounts for her reckless conduct with such 
licensed favourites as Dudley, presently the Earl of Leicester, 
whose familiarities with the Queen scandalised people who 
in those coarser times were not easily shocked. 

It was not the first occasion that she had declared her pre- 
ference for the virgin state when, after her accession, her 
Councillors begged her to choose a husband. In her brother's 
reign she was offered — as she told Sir Thomas Pope — " a 
very honourable marriage," but had begged leave "to remain 
in that estate I was, which of all others liked me best ; " and 
afterwards, in Mary's reign, when the King of Sweden made 
his secret proposal for her hand on behalf of his son, she 
assured her sister that " I so like this estate, as I persuade 
myself there is not any kind of life comparable unto it." 1 
In her very first Parliament, too, she assured the Commons 
that it would be a full satisfaction both for the memorial of 
her name and for her glory, if when she died it were engraven 
upon her marble tomb : " Here lieth Elizabeth, who reigned 
a Virgin and died a Virgin." Yet the question of a husband 
became urgent and insistent. " After all," wrote Feria to 
Philip of Spain in February, " everything depends on the 
husband she chooses." 2 The hope of the Spaniards, now 
that Philip himself had been rejected, rested in the candi- 
dature of the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand, and for a 
time this seemed to be the likeliest match among the 
foreigners. At home, however, there had lately come to 
the front the dashing and ambitious son of the late Duke of 
Northumberland, Lord Robert Dudley, the Queen's Master 
of the Horse and indispensable companion. Dudley soon 
completely displaced the old Earl of Arundel and other 
English nobles who fondly imagined themselves to be in the 

1 " Girlhood of Queen Elizabeth," p. 237. 

2 Ibid., p. 314. 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 13 

running. Elizabeth still had a word of encouragement for 
each, for it flattered her vanity to be surrounded by such 
ardent admirers, besides fitting in well with her diplomatic 
policy of playing off one lover against another, and keeping 
them all at her feet. Lord Robert, however, was now first 
favourite, and, as the Spanish ambassador suggests, already 
regarded by some people as her future husband. The only 
obstacle, it was believed, was poor Amy Robsart, then said 
to be ill : 

HE COUNT DE FERIA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

April 18, 1559. 

. . . During the last few days Lord Robert has 
come so much into favour that he does whatever he 
likes with affairs, and it is even said that her Majesty 
visits him in his chamber day and night. People talk 
of this so freely that they go so far as to say that his 
wife has a malady in one of her breasts, and the Queen 
is only waiting for her to die to marry Lord Robert. 
I can aSvSure your Majesty that matters have reached 
such a pass that I have been brought to consider 
whether it would not be well to approach Lord Robert 
on your Majesty's behalf, promising him your help 
and favour and coming to terms with him. 

The marriage with the Archduke Ferdinand appears 
to me not to be a bad expedient, as I see none better 
than he for matters on this side, and so far as regards 
the other side your Majesty would do well to attract 
and confirm him in his friendship, so that he may see 
how useful it will be for his aggrandizement and 
stability. . . . The Emperor and his sons apparently 
will not understand that your Majesty's influence in 
this matter is so great that it may be said to be in 
your gift, and it is probable that they have given rise 
to the same feeling here. To counteract this I think 
it will be best to buy Ferdinand's friendship with 
money, as he has none, not only finding him a sum 
for his coming hither if the affair is carried through, 
but also a regular payment every year, instead of the 



i 4 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

pensions which were paid to these people here, and 
which have had so little effect, as your Majesty has 
seen. Besides the ancient treaties between your 
Majesty's predecessors and the kings of this country 
your Majesty could also arrange with him, in the form 
which may seem best to you, to bind himself to remedy 
and restore religion, to which I cannot persuade 
myself that your Majesty is indifferent. This appears 
to me to be the best way for the present ; the cheapest 
and most convenient, and to neglect any effort in this 
direction would be a great pity. If Ferdinand is a 
man, backed up as he will be by your Majesty, he will 
be able not only to reform religion and pacify the 
country, but, even though the Queen may die, to keep 
the country in his fist, and, if anything besides God's 
cause has led me to hope that your Majesty might 
again get a footing here, it was this. I feel sure that 
any of your Majesty's affairs will encounter great 
difficulty in negotiation with the Emperor and his 
sons, and as I look upon this matter as of the highest 
importance for your Majesty and your dominions, as 
well as for God's sake, I wish to leave no stone un- 
turned. 



Lord Robert Dudley had played his cards well since Eliza- 
beth made him her Master of the Horse. He was ready 
ostensibly to support the Austrian match, knowing full well 
that religious scruples would prevent it from ever taking 
place. He did not bring his own wife to Court, probably 
realising that Elizabeth had no use for her. Dudley had 
married Amy Robsart — heiress and only legitimate child of a 
Norfolk Knight — eight years before this new reign began, 
and the disease from which she was now suffering soon gave 
rise to uglier rumours than those referred to in Feria's last 
letter. Two of Lady Robert's own letters survive, but they 
throw little light on her relations with her husband. One, 
preserved at Longleat, is to a woman tailor, relating to a 
fashionable costume of the period ; the other, which follows, 
proves, if it may be said to prove anything in that direction, 
that Dudley could be a considerate master, whatever his 




ROBERT DUDLEY, EARL OF LEICESTER 

From a water colour drawing in the British Museum by George Perfect Harding, 
after an original painting 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 15 

faults may have been as a husband. The year in which the 
letter was written is unknown : 

LADY ROBERT DUDLEY TO MR. FLOWERDEW. 

[Wright's "Queen Elizabeth and her Times."] 

Mr. Flowerdew, — 

I understand by Grise that you put him in remem- 
brance of what you spoke to me of concerning the 
going of certain sheep at Siscombe, and although I 
forgot to move my lord thereof before his departing, 
he being sore troubled with weighty affairs, and I not 
being altogether in quiet for his sudden departing, yet 
notwithstanding, knowing your accustomed friendship 
towards my lord and me, I neither may nor can deny 
you that request in my lord's absence of mine own 
authority, yea and it were a greater matter, as if any 
good occasion may serve you, so try me ; desiring you 
further that you will make sale of the wool so soon as 
is possible, although you sell it for vi.'s the stone, or 
as you would sell for yourself ; for my lord so earnestly 
required me at his departing to see those poor men 
satisfied as though it had been a matter depending 
upon life ; wherefore I force not to sustain a little loss 
thereby, to satisfy my lord's desire ; and so to send 
that money to Grise's house to London, by Bridewell, 
to whom my lord hath given order for the payment 
thereof. And thus I end, always troubling you, wish- 
ing that occasion serve me to requite you ; until that 
time I must pay you with thanks. And so to God I 
leave you, from Hays, this 7 of August. 

Your assured during life, 

Amye Dudley. 

Elizabeth and Dudley had much in common. They were 
; about the same age, were fellow prisoners in the Tower 
/ during the first year of Mary's reign, though it is unlikely 
that they caught more than a passing glimpse of each other, 
if so much as that ; and neither of them set up to be a 
paragon either of virtue or piety. His position at Court 
was only seriously challenged at this period by Sir William 



16 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

Pickering, a courtier who fled the country in Mary's reign 
for his share in Wyatt's conspiracy, but won his pardon by 
double-dealing with the Spaniards. He was a man, according 
to Paulo Tiepolo, of about thirty-six years of age, " of tall 
stature, handsome, and very successful with women, for he 
is said to have enjoyed the intimacy of many and great 
ones." 1 Pickering returned from the Continent in the 
spring, and was warmly welcomed for a time by those who 
could see no good either in the Queen's infatuation for Dudley, 
or in her marriage with a Catholic prince. His introduction 
into the Queen's presence was managed while Dudley was 
away on a deftly managed hunting-trip at Windsor, and it 
was not long before he succeeded in making some impression 
upon Elizabeth's susceptible heart : 

THE COUNT DE FERIA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

May 10, 1559. 

... I have not heard that anything more has been 
done on the other side about the marriage of the 
Archduke, and not even what your Majesty had 
arranged in the business. I want the matter pressed 
so as to make this woman show her hand. Some- 
times I think she might consent to it, and at other 
times that she will not marry, and has some other 
design. Pickering arrived here on the night of Ascen- 
sion Day and has been much visited by the Queen's 
favourites. She saw him secretly two days after his 
arrival, and yesterday he came to the palace publicly, 
and remained with her four or five hours. In London 
they are giving 25 to 100 that he will be King. They 
tell me Lord Robert is not so friendly with him as he 
was, and I believe that on the first day that the Queen 
saw him secretly Lord Robert did not know of it, as 
he had gone hunting at Windsor. If these things 
were not of such great importance, and so lamentable, 
some of them would be very ridiculous. 

They are now making fewer presents to the 
Swedish ambassador, and he is still very constant in 

1 Venetian Papers, Vol. I., pp. 36 — 37. 



" DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 17 

giving great gifts to the Queen and her adherents, in 
order to try and forward the marriage with his 
master. . . . 

I forgot to write to your Majesty that on St. 
George's Day they gave the Order to four gentlemen, 
and two vacancies remain to be filled up. Those 
who received it were the Duke of Norfolk, the 
Marquess of Northampton, who had it before he was 
attainted, the Earl of Rutland, and Lord Robert. 
Bedford was much aggrieved that they did not give it 
to him. He is not such a favourite as was thought. 
The secretary (Cecil), Bacon, the treasurer of the 
household, and Lord Robert rule everything. 

Meantime, the religion of the country was being gradually, 
if slowly, revolutionised, Parliament seeing to it that strict 
legality should characterise every change. The battle round 
the Act of Royal Supremacy raged for more than two months, 
Elizabeth being determined not to take her father's old title 
of " Supreme Head of the Church." " She seriously main- 
tains," wrote Dr. Jewel in one of his letters, "that this 
honour is due to Christ alone, and cannot belong to any 
human being soever ; besides which, these titles have been so 
foully contaminated by antichrist, that they can no longer be 
adopted by any one without impiety." ! Parliament com- 
promised matters by inventing the phrase, " Only Supreme 
Governor in the realm as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical 
things or causes as in temporal," the famous Act being finally 
passed on April 29, 1559. " Sensible men," as Professor 
Maitland writes, " saw that, having the substance, she could 
afford to waive the name " ; which is practically what the 
Spanish ambassador remarked at the time in writing to the 
Duke of Alba : 

BISHOP QUADRA TO THE DUKE OF ALBA. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I. 

London, May 10, 1559. 

By the Count's letter to the King you will see the 
state of things here, which is the most miserable that 

1 " Zurich Letters," First Series, p. 33. 
E.M.S. C 



18 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

can be conceived. At eight o'clock on Monday the 
Queen went to Parliament and exactly confirmed 
what they had adopted as they read it from a book. 
She only left open for consideration the clause where 
she is to take the title of head of the Church, and for 
the present only assumes the style of " Governor." 
This is said to have been done on the ground that she 
may marry, and her husband might then take the title. 
It is only a question of words, as "governor" and 
" head," after all, mean the same thing. Yesterday 
they took the sacrament away from the palace chapel, 
and some sort of Mass was performed in English, 
as they are doing in many parish churches. The 
Bishops are ordered not to leave London without the 
Queen's consent. They say the oath will at once be 
proffered to them, which they will not take, and that 
they will thereupon be all deprived at one blow, and 
the new Bishops put in their seats. The decree is to 
the effect that any person who shall oppose the 
doctrine prescribed by the Queen shall lose his 
patrimonial property (salaries and ecclesiastical 
revenues being confiscated for a refusal to take the 
oath) for the first offence, and the second offence is 
punishable by death. 1 

The Earl of Sussex pronounced an harangue in 
the upper house exhorting the Queen to uphold this 
law, and saying how vain would be all their efforts if 
the new enactment were not kept inviolate. One of 
the members of the lower house compared the Queen 
to Moses, saying that she had been sent by God to 
lead the people out of bondage. The heretics of our 
own times have never been such spoilt children of the 
devil as these are, and the persecutors of the early 
church were surely not impious enough to dare to 
pass such unjust acts as these. To force a man to 



1 Quadra is not strictly accurate. The penalties involved loss of 
office and benefits for the first offence, and forfeiture of goods for 
the second. It was only if the deprived clergy chose to attack the 
supremacy that they were liable, on the third conviction, to the 
penalties of treason. 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" ig 

do a thing whether he likes it or not has at all events 
some form, however unjust, but to force him to see a 
thing in the same light as the King sees it is absurd, 
and has no form either just or unjust ; and yet such 
is the ignorance here that they pass such a thing as 
this. Religion here now is simply a question of 
policy, and in a hundred thousand ways they let us 
see that they neither love nor fear us. 

That was the Catholic point of view. The Protestant 
standpoint may be seen in the following letter from Dr. John 
Parkhurst, afterwards Bishop of Norwich, to the Swiss 
Reformer who sheltered many of the English exiles in 
Zurich during Mary's reign : 

JOHN PARKHURST TO HENRY BULLINGER. 

["Zurich Letters,'" First Series.] 

London, May 21, 1559. 

Jewel and I received your very courteous letter at 
the beginning of April, by which I perceived your 
intention of sending your son Rodolph, at some 
appointed time, to improve his education at the 
university of Oxford. This, however, as things now 
are, I would not advise you to do ; for it is as yet a 
den of thieves, and of those who hate the light. There 
are but few gospellers there, and many papists. But 
when it shall have been reformed, which we both 
hope and desire may ere long be the case, let your 
Rodolph at length come over. . . . 

The Book of Common Prayer, set forth in the 
time of King Edward, is now again in general use 
throughout England, 1 and will be everywhere, in 
spite of the struggles and opposition of the pseudo- 
bishops. The Queen is not willing to be called the 
head of the church of England, although this title has 
been offered her ; but she willingly accepts the title 
of governor, which amounts to the same thing. The 

1 By the Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer passed by 
this parliament. 

C 2 



20 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

pope is again driven from England, to the great 
regret of the bishops and the whole tribe of shavelings. 
The Mass is abolished. The parliament broke up 
on the eighth of May. . . . The bishops are in 
future to have no palaces, estates, or country seats. 
The present owners are to enjoy for life those they 
are now in possession of. They are worthy of being 
suspended, not only from their office, but from a 
halter ; for they are as so many Davuses, throwing 
everything into confusion. The monasteries will be 
dissolved in a short time. 

I cannot now write more, for within four days 
I have to contend in my native place, 1 both from the 
pulpit and in mutual conference, with those horrid 
monsters of Arianism ; for which end I have read 
with much attention your very learned treatise on 
both natures in Christ. I hope to come sufficiently 
prepared to the contest, and so to overcome the 
enemies of Christ. Christ lives, He reigns, and will 
reign, in spite of Arians, Anabaptists, and papists. 
. . . My wife salutes you, your wife, sons and 
daughters, and all friends. She very frequently 
falls into tears when any mention is made of the 
ladies of Zurich. . . . 

In haste. 

Most entirely yours, 

John Parkhurst. 

In another letter of the same date Parkhurst writes of the 
" pseudo-bishops " that " they are now abhorred both by 
God and man, and never creep out into public unless they 
are compelled to do so, lest perchance a tumult should 
arise among the people. Many call them butchers to their 
face." It must be remembered that this was written in 
Protestant London, where the Smithfield burnings were still 
fresh in the citizens' minds, and the end of the papal and 
Spanish regime was welcomed with greater enthusiasm than 
anywhere else in England, save perhaps in some of the 
seaports, which Feria always regarded as among the most 

1 Guildford, Surrey. 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 21 

corrupt places in the kingdom. In the less densely populated 
districts, especially north of the Humber, the Old Faith and 
the old feudalism still held their ground. The suave Quadra, 
Bishop of Aquila, who succeeded Feria, affected to view the 
religious settlement with greater tolerance than did his 
predecessor when discussing the changes with Cecil. His 
smoother methods of diplomacy are apparent in his account 
of the reception of the Emperor's ambassador, Baron 
Rabenstayn, whose delicate mission it was to negotiate 
a marriage between Elizabeth and the Emperor's younger 
son, the Archduke Charles, Ferdinand's chances being 
regarded at this time as hopeless on account of his irre- 
concilable religious views. Charles was now offered as 
" younger and more likely to please her " : 

BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, May 30, 1559. 

... On Friday morning Baron Rabenstayn, the 
Emperor's ambassador, arrived here and came to 
lodge in this house, which belongs to the Count de 
Feria, where all honour and good treatment are 
shown him. He besought an audience through 
Chaloner and the lords of the Council, and I 
solicited audience for myself to accompany him and 
give him what aid I could, as your Majesty commands 
in your letter of 17th instant. We were received on 
Sunday at one, and found the Queen very fine in her 
presence-chamber, looking on at the dancing. She 
kept us there a long while, and then entered her room, 
and I presented your Majesty's letter, and asked her 
agreeably with what had previously been said on your 
Majesty's behalf, to consider how suitable in all 
respects would be her marriage with a son of the 
Emperor, with which object the ambassador came, 
and I begged her to hear him and decide the matter 
with the prudence and wisdom which God had given 
her, and which were so great that I had no doubt 
she would easily discern how advisable such a match 
would be. I did not name the archduke, because, as 



22 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

I suspected she would reply excluding both of them, 
I did not wish to give her an opportunity of doing so. 
She at once began, as I feared, to talk about not 
wishing to marry, and wanted to reply in that sense, 
but I cut short the colloquy by saying that I did not 
seek an answer, and only begged of her to hear the 
ambassador and reply to him when she thought 
proper. I then stood aside a little and left her alone 
with the German. 

Whilst he was with her I took Cecil apart and 
talked to him about this business and others to see 
what he would say. I understood from him, although 
not by his words, that the Queen would refuse the 
match with one of the Emperor's sons, thinking that 
the Archduke Ferdinand would be proposed, as he 
is the only one that these people have any know- 
ledge of, and they have quite made up their minds 
that he would upset their heresy. He then began 
to relate the various offers of marriage that had been 
made, and wanted to draw me out about some ot 
them, such as that of the Duke de Nemours and 
those of Englishmen. I told him my dispassionate 
judgment of them, and it ended in his wanting to 
satisfy me about your Majesty's offer. He said that 
if it had not been for the impediment of affinity the 
Queen would have married your Majesty, but the 
matter involved religious questions such as the 
dispensory power of the Pope, which it would be 
fruitless now to discuss as the offer had fallen 
through. I purposely avoided answering him, 
although really I was glad to have the opportunity 
of talking over these matters with him, to dissipate 
the suspicion which I think he and his friends have 
that they have incurred your Majesty's anger by their 
change of religion. I therefore answered him without 
any reproach or complaint, and only said that what 
had been done in the kingdom certainly seemed to 
me very grave, severe and ill-timed, but that I hoped 
in God, and, if He would some day give us a council 
of bishops, or a good Pope who would reform the 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 23 

customs of the clergy, and the abuses of the court 
of Rome, which apparently had scandalized the 
provinces, all the evil would be remedied, and God 
would not allow so noble and christian a nation as 
this to be separated in faith from the rest of 
Christendom, to its grave peril. With regard to 
your Majesty's marriage I said that God had ordered 
all for the best in this great and weighty matter, 
and I then turned the conversation again to the 
marriages. He told me the Queen had been informed 
that the Archduke [Charles] had a head larger than 
that of the Earl of Bedford, and was unfit to govern, 
and other things showing rather more openly than 
hitherto a desire that the Queen should marry. 

The ambassador ended his interview with the 
Queen, quite despairing of the business, but dismissed 
with great compliments and polite phrases. When I 
saw this I returned to her and asked her pardon, but 
said your Majesty's earnest desire to see this marriage 
brought about made me bold, as I had good reason 
to be, and I begged her to consider that in a matter 
of this gravity touching the welfare and tranquillity 
of their kingdoms, and those of their neighbours, 
kings and queens could not always follow their own 
desires, to the prejudice of those of their subjects, 
without doing great wrong and grievous sin, and 
therefore she should not consult her own inclination 
about her marriage, but should look at the ruin that 
would come to her country by her doing so. I said 
that when she had resolved how to act in this case 
she should treat of her intention frankly and sincerely 
with the Emperor in order that no cause of offence 
should be given to him. She knew, I said, how 
honestly and kindly the worthy Germans negotiated, 
and should, in order to come to a proper decision, 
truly inform herself of what it behoved her to know, 
as I heard that they had represented the archduke 
to her as a young monster and the contrary of what 
he is, for although both brothers were comely, this 
one who was offered to her now was the younger 



24 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

and the more likely to please her than the other who 
had been spoken of before. 

I thought best to speak in this way, as I had 
understood in my talk with Cecil that it was 
Ferdinand they dreaded, and I wanted to see how 
she would answer about the other one, and so to 
clear the ground and find out whether all this means 
a desire not to marry at all, or simply to avoid 
a Catholic husband, which in my opinion is the 
principal object of the Queen and her associates in 
heresy. She was all attention at this and asked me 
of whom I was speaking. I told her the younger 
brother and not Ferdinand, of whom the Emperor 
thought he could not avail himself for this purpose, 
whereas Charles possessed extremely good and fitting 
qualities which I recounted at length. She was a 
long while demurring and doubting and telling me 
she was sure I was mistaken, as they had spoken to 
her only of Ferdinand. When she was quite satisfied 
about this by your Majesty's letter (whereat, as I 
thought, she was pleased) she went back again to 
her nonsense and said she would rather be a nun than 
marry without knowing with whom, and on the faith 
of portrait painters. We continued at this for some 
time wasting words, and at last she said she was 
resolved not to marry except to a man of worth 
whom she had seen and spoken to, and she asked 
me whether I thought the Archduke Charles would 
come to this country that she might see him. I said 
that I could well believe that he would do so willingly, 
young man as he was, but I thought his father would 
not consent to it, not on account of the danger, ot 
which there was none, but for his own dignity's sake, 
and that of the business itself. She repeated this 
several times. I do not know whether she is jesting, 
which is quite possible, but I really believe she would 
like to arrange for this visit in disguise. I turned it 
to a joke and said we had better discuss the substance 
of the business, which was, after all, the "yes" or 
" no " as to her own wishes, and that with regard 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 25 

to her satisfaction with the individual, I would 
undertake that he would not displease her, and that 
the archduke had everything to gain by showing 
himself. Finally it was settled that she should call 
the German back again, and tell him that at my 
prayer she was pleased to depute some of her 
Council to hear his proposal and to give her their 
advice, although she was resolved not to trust 
painters, but was determined to see and know the 
man who was to be her husband. We thereupon 
left : the German very well pleased that the affair 
had been set on foot again after he had been, as he 
thought, dismissed. . . . 

Although what your Majesty has often heard from 
the Count de Feria in respect to the marriage is no 
doubt highly probable, yet I cannot help thinking 
that, so clearly is the need for her to marry being 
daily more understood by herself and her advisers, 
notwithstanding her disinclination to say yes, I need 
not despair of her listening to the proposal, at all 
events until other ambassadors arrive to engage the 
attention of her advisers, for afterwards she will not 
scruple to serve them in the same way she is serving 
this one. The whole business for these people is to 
avoid any engagement that will upset their wicked- 
ness. I believe that when once they are satisfied 
about this they will not be averse to Charles. I am 
not sure about her, for I do not understand her. 
Amongst other qualities which she says her husband 
must possess is that he should not sit at home all 
day amongst the cinders, but should in time of peace 
keep himself employed in warlike exercises. 

On the same day another long letter was sent abroad from 
London, describing the reception of the splendid embassy 
from France, headed by the Constable, the Due de 
Montmorenci, dispatched hither for the purpose of receiving 
the Queen's ratification of the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis. 
The letter was written by that excellent gossip II Schifanoya, 
whose correspondence, discovered by Rawdon Brown in the 



26 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

State Archives of Mantua, supplies us with many of the most 
picturesque details of English Court life at the beginning of 
Elizabeth's reign : 

IL SCHIFANOYA TO THE CASTELLAN OF MANTUA. 
[Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII.] 

London, May 30, 1559. 

On the 23rd instant, the French Ambassadors 
arrived here. They were received at Dover by Lord 
Cobham, with a very honourable company. On the 
morrow he took them to his house, and entertained 
them with hunting and hawking for two days. They 
then went to Gravesend, where they found the 
Admiral with another company of lords and gentle- 
men, and a fair preparation of barges, to take them 
by the Thames to London. On arriving at the 
Tower they found awaiting them the Duke of 
Norfolk, the Earl of Sussex, the Marquess ol 
Northampton, my Lord Robert [Dudley], her 
Majesty's Master of the Horse, with many other 
lords, earls, and barons, and in short all the nobility 
of the Court, well mounted and apparelled. The 
Duke and the Marquess placed M. de Montmorenci 
between them, the rest doing the like by the others 
according to their rank, and proceeded along the 
wide street of Cheapside to their lodgings in the 
houses near St. Paul's belonging to the Bishop of 
London, the Dean, Master Peter Vannes, and other 
gentlemen thereabouts. The Ambassadors were 
preceded by a great number of their own gentlemen 
and of Englishmen, there being a great concourse ol 
people in the streets, though it rained a little. On 
dismounting they found their lodgings excellently 
provided with convenient rooms and provisions for 
making good cheer. 

On the morrow, Wednesday the 24th, after dinner, 
accompanied ut supra, they went to the Court at 
Whitehall Palace, where the Queen now resides, and 
having entered the great hall on the ground floor, 
hung with very choice tapestries, with the canopy, 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 27 

throne, and royal cushions, they were received by 
the Earl of Arundel, the Lord Steward, with all the 
rest of the Lords of the Privy Council, and mounting 
the stairs they went to kiss [hands] and do reverence 
to the Queen, who received them very joyfully and 
graciously, going to meet them as far as the guard 
chamber at the head of the stairs ; and being con- 
ducted to the presence chamber, they presented their 
credentials, and explained their embassy, everybody 
standing. After conversing for an hour her Majesty 
withdrew, and they were taken to the Park of the 
said Palace to see a pair of bucks killed, one by dogs, 
the other by archers, very much to their diversion till 
the hour for supper, to which the Queen had invited 
them. Meanwhile a sumptuous feast was being 
prepared in the garden of the said place under the 
long and wide gallery on the ground floor, which was 
all hung with gold and silver brocade, and divided 
into three apartments, in the centre of which was the 
table prepared for her Majesty, and at a short 
distance from it another for the Ambassadors. There 
was also a table fifty-four paces in length for the 
other lords, gentlemen, and ladies. The whole 
gallery was closed in with wreaths of flowers and 
leaves of most beautiful designs, which gave a very 
sweet odour and were marvellous to behold, having 
been prepared in less than two evenings so as to keep 
them fresh. 

On returning from the hunt at 6 p.m. they entered 
the garden by a private gate, where they were met by 
her Majesty, dressed entirely in purple velvet, with so 
much gold and so many pearls and jewels that it 
added much to her beauty. She took M. de 
Montmorenci with her right hand and M. de Vielle- 
ville with the left, and they walked in the private 
orchard for more than a full hour, her Majesty 
speaking with them most sweetly and familiarly in 
French, as readily as she does Italian, Latin, and 
Greek, all which tongues she uses at pleasure, and in 
so loud a tone as to be heard by everybody. From 



28 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

what I myself heard, she discoursed about her 
tribulations in past times, saying that if the love 
which the people bore her had not been so great, 
they [the late sovereigns ?] would have put her to death 
when they placed her in the Tower ; and she thanked 
God, &c. 

The supper hour having arrived, the trumpets 
sounded, and her Majesty went to the door of the 
gallery, which was however an artificial one made 
of flowers, leaves, and roses. In the two corners ot 
the gallery were two semicircular cupboards, laden 
with most precious and costly drinking cups of gold 
and of rock crystal and other jewels. The Queen, 
having washed her hands, and being at table under 
her canopy, insisted on having M. de Montmorenci at 
her little table, which stood crosswise at the head of 
the other tables. On the same platform, at the 
second table, the other two Ambassadors were 
seated, with the younger son of the Constable. At 
the large table all the rest of the French lords and 
gentlemen sat on one side, and on the other all the 
ladies, of whom there was no small number, and who 
required so much space on account of the farthingales 
they wore that there was not room for all ; so part of 
the Privy Chamber ate on the ground on the rushes, 
being excellently served by lords and cavaliers, who 
gave them courage and company at their repast. 
The banquet was wonderful for large and excellent 
joints, but the delicacies and cleanliness customary in 
Italy were wanting. It lasted for two hours, with 
music of several sorts. After supper, the tables 
being removed, they danced till the eleventh hour of 
the night, and when her Majesty retired everybody 
went to their lodgings. 

Next day they returned to the Court in full dress 
with the collar of St. Michael, being preceded by the 
captains and others, all in pompous array, to take the 
oath. They went into the chapel of the Palace, 
where, in presence of the Queen, M. de Montmorenci 
promised, swore, &c, and afterwards the other two 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 29 

(Ambassadors) did the same, with the ceremonies, 
&c. Montmorenci swore twice, once for France, and 
again for Scotland ; and he offered to take the 
Communion, that being Corpus Christi Day, which 
festival was celebrated all over the world, except in 
England, but her Majesty did not wish it ; so they 
were not much edified by this omission, or by seeing 
the people working all over London, and the shops 
open on that day. They remained all that day at the 
Court, and dined and supped with the Queen, not in 
the garden, but in the large wing of the Palace, and 
being seen to do so publicly, they were honoured by 
everybody. 

It was arranged for the morrow to go on a pleasure 
excursion to Hampton Court, to see that stupendous 
place, which is so replete with every convenience, and 
then in the evening they were to lodge at Richmond, 
but they were disturbed and kept indoors by the 
coming of the hostages on that day, they not having 
been able to cross the Channel all together from 
Boulogne and Calais, owing to the diversity of the 
winds. Next day, Saturday, the Ambassadors went 
to present them [the hostages], and at the same time 
to take leave to depart on the following day ; and so 
all of them departed, M. de Noailles, brother of the 
Bishop, who is Ambassador at Venice, and the 
hostages remaining. They were accompanied to 
Gravesend and the seaside by many persons, and 
from what I hear they were very well satisfied both 
with the kingdom and their reception. 

An Ambassador from the Emperor arrived here two 
days ago, and had audience yesterday. Many say he 
is come to treat the marriage with Prince Ferdinand, 
and that a greater personage will follow with precious 
gifts, should the reply to this one be hopeful. He 
came postwise, and is lodged at Durham Place. 
[Jane] Dormer, Countess de Feria, 1 also lodges in 

1 Jane Dormer, the beautiful daughter of Sir William Dormer, and 
favourite maid-of-honour of Mary I., had been married by Feria 
when Spanish Ambassador in England in 1558. The Countess 



3 o ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

the same place ; she keeps table and house there 
with her mother Mistress Clarentius, and the Bishop 
of Aquila, who remained here as Ambassador for 
King Philip after the departure of the Count de Feria. 
The Count departed a fortnight ago, and it has not 
yet been heard what present the Queen made him at 
his departure, saving that he asked of her as a special 
favour, instead of gifts, a passport for passage to 
Flanders of all the monks, friars, and nuns now here, 
who were required to renounce their profession, swear 
against the Pope, and observe the articles lately 
enacted against the Christian and Catholic Church, 
besides being expelled and driven out of their monas- 
teries and convents, had they been men to consent to 
this, but they had determined to die rather than 
change their purpose. 

The Queen did not act thus with the French Lords, 
to whom she made gifts more than splendid, viz. To 
M. de Montmorenci : a tankard and bason of gold of 
the value of 1,400 [crowns], equivalent to 5,600 " di 
questi " [English crowns ?] ; 15 cups of silver gilt with 
5 covers, worth 700 [crowns] = 2,800 ; two dozen 
spoons and forks of silver, gilt and worked superbly ; 
two of the best and most beautiful hackneys that were 
in her stall ; divers dogs — mastiffs, great and small, 
hounds (scureiri), and setters — a quantity of every 
sort. To M. de Vielleville : the same [articles], but 
of less value, and without spoons, "pironi," hackneys, 
or dogs. To the brother of M. de Montmorenci : 
most valuable clothes, which had belonged to King 
Edward her brother, and suitable to his person, he 
being of the same age. To all the principal gentle- 
men : a chain of gold each, according to their 
qualities. 

I have nothing else to tell you, save that, with 
regard to religion, they live in all respects in the 
Lutheran fashion in all the churches of London, except 
St. Paul's, which still keeps firm in its former state 

remained at Durham Place after her husband's departure until his 
kinsman, Don Juan de Ayala, arrived to escort her to Flanders. 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 31 

until the day of St. John the Baptist (24th June), when 
the period prescribed by Parliament expires, the Act 
being in the press, and soon about to appear ; but the 
Council nevertheless sent twice or thrice to summon 
the Bishop of London [Edmund Bonner], to give him 
orders to remove the service of the Mass and of the 
Divine office in that church ; but he answered them 
intrepidly, " I possess three things, soul, body, and 
property ; of the two last you can dispose at your 
pleasure, but as to the soul, God alone can command 
me." He remains constant about body and property, 
and again to-day he has been called to the Council, 
but I do not yet know what they said to him. All 
the Bishops are likewise disposed to await their sen- 
tence and decision, and many other prelates after 
them ; which sentence and decision will soon be 
known. In the interval the false preachers do not 
fail to preach publicly in all the churches, demanding 
their revenues. Il Schifanoya. 

Dr. Jewel takes up the story with his letter on the religious 
situation not only in England but also in Scotland, where 
John Knox, newly returned from the Continent, was infusing 
fresh life into the Scottish Reformation movement and win- 
ning for Calvinism what Professor Maitland describes as the 
most durable of its triumphs : 

JOHN JEWEL TO PETER MARTYR. 
["Zurich Letters,'" First Series.] 

London, June, 1559. 
And what, after all, can I write to you ? For we 
are all of us hitherto as strangers at home. Return 
then, you will say, to Zurich. Most earnestly do I 
wish, my father, that this may some time be possible : 
for, so far as I can see, there is no hope of your ever 
coming to England. Zurich ! Zurich ! how much 
oftener do I now think of thee than ever I thought of 
England when I was at Zurich ! But though, as I 
observed, we are yet strangers in our own country, 
we hear sometimes ineffable and inexplicable things. 
Mischief, however, is often better kept at home. 



32 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

As to religion, it has been effected, I hope, under 
good auspices, that it shall be restored to the same 
state as it was during your latest residence among us, 
under Edward. But, as far as I can perceive at pre- 
sent, there is not the same alacrity among our friends, 
as there lately was among the papists. So miserably 
is it ordered that falsehood is armed, while truth is 
not only unarmed, but also frequently offensive. The 
scenic apparatus of divine worship is now under 
agitation ; and those very things which you and I 
have so often laughed at, are now seriously and 
solemnly entertained by certain persons, (for we are 
not consulted,) as if the christian religion could not 
exist without something tawdry. Our minds indeed 
are not sufficiently disengaged to make these fooleries 
of much importance. Others are seeking after a golden, 
or as it rather seems to me, a leaden mediocrity ; and 
are crying out that the half is better than the whole. 

Some of our friends are marked out for bishops ; 
Parker for Canterbury, Cox for Norwich, Barlow for 
Chichester, Scory for Hereford, and Grindal for 
London ; for Bonner is ordered to vacate his see. 
When they will take possession, I know not. From 
this flowering I can easily guess beforehand, as you do of 
wine, what kind of a vintage it will be. Our enemies 
in the mean time are watching their opportunity, and 
promise themselves that these things cannot last. 

In Scotland we hear that there have been some 
disturbances, I know not of what kind, respecting 
matters of religion ; that the nobles have driven out 
the monks, and taken possession of the monasteries ; 
that some French soldiers of the garrison have been 
slain in a riot ; and that the Queen was so incensed 
as to proclaim the banishment of the preacher Knox 
by sound of horn, according to the usual custom in 
Scotland, when they mean to send any one into exile. 
What has become of him, I know not. . . . 

Knox continued to preach in defiance of the Queen- Regent, 
Mary of Guise, and ber French soldiers. Images were 



•'DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 33 

smashed, churches were wrecked, and by the end of the 
month each side, Catholic and Calvinistic, had an army in 
the field, the party of the Reformation being as eager to 
expel the French as the English Protestants had been to 
shake off the Spaniards. The French were equally deter- 
mined to remain, for when Mary Stuart married the Dauphin 
in April, 1558, she had signed a secret treaty by which, 
in the event of her death without issue, Scotland was to 
become a French possession, and all rights which she had 
or might have to the crown of England were to follow suit. 
Openly, like her boy husband, the Dauphin, and her father- 
in-law, Henry II., who had long cast covetous eyes both on 
Scotland and England, she had pledged her word of honour 
to preserve inviolate the laws, liberties and privileges of her 
native land. 

This treachery of the secret pledge is an ugly blot on Mary 
Stuart's escutcheon, but it must be remembered that she was 
only in her early girlhood at the time, and entirely under the 
influence of her uncles — especially the Duke of Guise and the 
Cardinal of Lorraine — who had brought her up from child- 
hood, since her betrothal to the Dauphin in the summer of 
1548. Of Scotland itself she doubtless retained but a hazy 
recollection, and must have known that her mother, as Queen 
Regent, was also acting in accordance with the Guise's 
ambitious policy. " The young Queen — then only in her 
sixteenth year— probably signed these deeds," as Dr. Hay 
Fleming says, " without fully realising their import. If so, 
her heedlessness gives a rude shock to the panegyrics of those 
apologists who speak of her precocity as phenomenal." * She 
was merely a puppet in the hands of Henry II., too, when, 
upon the death of Mary I., she quartered the arms of England 
with those of France and Scotland. The English heralds 
reported upon this as follows : 

THE HERALDS TO THE DUKE OF NORFOLK. 

[Strype's ''Annals of the Reformation."] 

June, 1559. 

It may please your grace, that upon good delibera- 
tion, we, Garter and Clarencieux, with others of the 

1 "Mary Queen of Scots," p. 24. 
E.M.S. D 



34 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

office, have perused this escutcheon of arms delivered 
by your grace ; and we find the same prejudicial to 
the Queen's Majesty, her state and dignity ; and that 
it doth not appertain to any foreign prince, what 
marriage soever he hath made with England, to 
quarter, bear, or use the arms of England otherwise 
than in pale, as in token of marriage. And albeit 
James, late Scottish King, grandfather to the Scottish 
Queen that now is, married with one of the daughters 
of King Henry VII., the said Scottish Queen, being 
but one of the collaterals, cannot, nor ought not, to 
bear any escutcheon of the arms of England : nor yet 
the Dauphin, her husband, in the right of her, or 
otherwise. Furthermore, we find the said escutcheon 
falsely marshalled, contrary to all law and order of 
arms. 

Hence the appearance upon the scene of a new lover for 
Elizabeth in James Hamilton, third Earl of Arran, heir of 
the Duke of Chatelherault, who was next in the order of 
succession to the Scottish throne, and had been forced to 
abdicate the regency in 1554 in favour of Mary of Guise. 
Both Mary Stuart and her husband were known to be 
delicate. In the event of her death without issue 'and the 
marriage of Arran with the Queen of England, who could 
prevent the two kingdoms from becoming united ? Dr. 
Quadra, Bishop of Aquila, discloses some inkling of this 
scheme in his next letter to his master : 

BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, July 1, 1559. 

About three days since, Thomas Randolph, brother 
of the Randolph, one of your Majesty's servants, 
arrived here from France, and at once went to see 
the Queen. He told her how the Dauphin had 
ordered the arms of England to be emblazoned with 
his own in many places, and it was said that he 
would shortly proclaim himself King of England. 
Randolph says that after the Queen had heard all 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 35 

about it, she told him that she would take a husband 
who would give the King of France some trouble, 
and do him more harm than he expected. She gave 
him 200 ducats and ordered him to return to France 
immediately. He was to leave last night. I hear 
that the Duke of Chatelherault [Arran] is in England 
and very near London. The day before yesterday 
Cecil, after having been in and out several times with 
advices for the Queen, left suddenly with only two 
servants. I have been unable to find out whither he 
has gone, although I have tried to do so in several 
ways, but the accounts all differ. I am sure he has 
gone to speak with the Duke, and we shall soon have 
news of this marriage, for it is not to be believed that 
they would have received the Duke at such a time as 
this, and endanger their friendship with the French, 
unless the thing were settled, and he was to be 
something more than a guest. 

Both Cecil and Elizabeth saw the advantage of moving in 
the matter, either by way of matrimony, or of helping Arran 
as judiciously as possible to stir up strife in Scotland. At 
that time the Earl, who had served as Captain of the Scots 
Guards in France, was in hiding, his Calvinistic leanings 
having caused the French King to order his capture, alive or 
dead. Three days before Quadra wrote the foregoing letter 
Throckmorton sent a messenger to Cecil, who put the matter 
in a nutshell : 

SIR NICHOLAS THROCKMORTON TO SIR WILLIAM 

CECIL. 

[Forbes's ''Full View of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth.''''] 

Paris, June 28, 1559. 

Sir, it may like you to understand that this bearer, 
Sandy Whitlow, is repairing through England into 
Scotland, and for the service he has done and may 
do, I thought good to recommend him unto you, so 
that he may find some favour and benefit for his good 
zeal and service done to the Queen's Majesty. He 

d 2 



36 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

is, as I understand, in great credit in Scotland with 
all the Protestants of all estates, and (I think) will 
be as meet an instrument to advance the Queen's 
Majesty's service in Scotland as may be found. 
Marry, it shall be good that you understand afore- 
time, about the death of the Cardinal of St. Andrews, 
there hath been unkindness between this said bearer 
and the Duke [of Chatelherault] the late Governor of 
Scotland ; so he is not the best to deal with the said 
Governor, but rather with the principal parties which 
attempt the broil in Scotland for matters of religion. 
He seems to me heartily and earnestly to wish 
that this may be the means to unite England and 
Scotland together : saying, there is no foundation nor 
league durable nor available, but in God's cause : 
" And now," saith he, " you have a Queen, and we 
our prince the Earl of Arran, marriable both, and the 
chief upholders of God's religion ; for which cause 
there be many that do conspire against them both." 
The whole nation of the Scots do say that the Earl 
of Arran must needs be the worst Frenchman that 
ever came out of Scotland ; so unkindly have they 
handled him in France. And further to incense the 
French against the Scots, there hath chanced since 
the Earl of Arran's departure a brawl between certain 
Frenchmen and the men at arms of the said Earl of 
Arran's band ; so as there hath been slain one of the 
said Earl of Arran's band, and four or five of the 
Frenchmen. 

It shall be, in my poor opinion, expedient that with 
as convenient speed as may be you advertise either 
Sir James Croft or Sir Henry Percy, that the 
French King hath lately sent certain commissioners 
to apprehend the Earl of Arran, with great severity 
and extremity, to bring him either alive or dead. 
Whereupon, the said Earl of Arran, to save his life, 
is fled, no man can tell whither : and since his depar- 
ture great ungentleness and extremity hath been 
shown, not only to his band, but to all such as were 
thought to favour him : inasmuch as, contrary to 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 37 

the old league between France and Scotland, the 
band of men-at-arms of Scotsmen, which by the 
said league were ever under a Scottish Captain, are 
now either utterly ceased, or appointed to be under 
the leadership of the Duke of Longueville. And 
further it may be said that when M. de Mompesat, 
one of the commissioners to bring the said Earl 
of Arran, went to excuse himself to the Queen- 
Dauphiness for obeying the French King's command- 
ment in executing such a matter against her kinsman 
the Earl of Arran, the said Queen-Dauphiness made 
answer that he could not do her a greater pleasure 
than to treat the Earl of Arran as an arrant traitor. 
Sir, methinketh, if these matters could be speedily 
brought to the ears of the Earl of Arran's father and 
kinsfolk, and generally to all the Protestants of Scot- 
land, it should serve well to the advancement of the 
Queen's Majesty's service. . . . 

Thomas Randolph, who had been sent by Cecil to keep in 
touch with Arran, had succeeded in conveying him, disguised as 
a merchant, to Zurich, where he visited Peter Martyr and 
other reformers. He started from Lausanne for England on 
July 6, travelling incognito as M. de Beaufort. The news 
that Henry II. had been mortally wounded at the tournament 
in Paris on June 30, held in celebration of the peace of 
Cateau-Cambresis, and the marriage alliance with Philip II., 
may have hastened his departure. A new situation had now 
arisen in France which pleased Elizabeth mightily. Mary 
Stuart, it is true, was Queen Consort of France as soon as 
Henry died of his wound on July 10, but her immature husband, 
Francis II. — two years younger than herself — was King in 
name only, the real rulers being the Guises, who, in taking 
over the reins of government, created a France which, as 
Elizabeth knew, was no longer united. It was not difficult 
to encourage revolt in Scotland, where the Lords of the Con- 
gregation were already up in arms against Mary of Guise. 
Quadra realised the danger both to the Spanish and the 
Catholic causes, and did not disguise his fears in his next 
letter to Philip II. : 



38 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, July 12, 1559- 

... I have since received another letter from 
your Majesty, dated the gth instant, instructing me 
what to do when Don Juan de Ayala arrives, which 
instructions shall be carried out unless in view of the 
death of the King of France (of which the Queen 
received news to-night), Don Juan should think well to 
suspend action until receiving fresh orders from your 
Majesty. The joy of the Queen was very great, and 
she at once sent the news to the Emperor's 
ambassador. I conversed yesterday with some of the 
Frenchmen here, and they confess that the Scottish 
affair is lost. They have news that the Queen 
Regent is in a corner awaiting succour, that they have 
attacked and taken the town of St. John (Perth) and 
that the whole country is up. The question is not 
religion but rebellion, and, the King being dead, the 
remedy is difficult, particularly as things here, religous 
and otherwise, will get much worse if they are allowed 
to have their way. I cannot help telling your Majesty 
how greatly many of the godly here, and persons well 
versed in public affairs, are astonished to see that this 
Queen is allowed to proceed with her designs, to the 
manifest peril to the faith and the neighbouring king- 
doms. In six months she has revived heresy and encour- 
ages it everywhere to such an extent that it is recovering 
furiously all the credit it had lost for years past. I 
well know that this question will be duly considered 
in your Majesty's council, and I only venture to say 
what I do in order that your Majesty may know the 
opinion of the people here. At one time they 
expected the remedy from your Majesty's hands, but 
had recently turned towards the King of France for 
it. Now that he fails them it seems that all must fall 
on your Majesty's shoulders again, although at the 
same time, his death greatly facilitates redress, as no 
other parties exist now in the country but Catholics 
and heretics, and no dependence will be placed on the 




[Photo, Man sell 
FRANCIS [I. OF FRANCE 
After the portrait by Francois Clouet at Hampton Court 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE 39 

new King of France for the present, your Majesty 
being now the only hope of the godly and dread of the 
wicked, if the latter are not allowed time to meet and 
weaken the Catholic party .... 

Philip had too many ecclesiastical troubles of his own to 
interfere just then either in English or Scottish affairs, even 
on behalf of the religion of which he was the avowed 
champion. Quadra therefore had good reason for bitterness 
and despair as he stood helplessly watching the undoing of 
the Old Faith in the land which had so lately been little 
more than a Spanish possession : 

BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, July 27, 1559. 

I have lost all hope in the affairs of this woman. She 
is convinced of the soundness of her unstable power, 
and will only see her error when she is irretrievably 
lost. In religious matters she has been saturated 
ever since she was born in a bitter hatred to our faith, 
and her one object is to destroy it. If your Majesty 
were to give her life and all in it, as you did once be- 
fore, she would never be more friendly than she is 
now, and she would, if she had the power, sow heresy 
broadcast in all your Majesty's dominions to-day, and 
set them ablaze without compunction. Besides this, 
her language (learnt from Italian heretic friars who 
brought her up) is so shifty that it is the most difficult 
thing in the world to negotiate with her. With her 
all is falsehood and vanity. 

Scottish affairs were equally gloomy from the Catholic 
standpoint, though needless to say such men as Dr. Sandys 
were as jubilant on that account as Quadra was dismayed. 

JOHN JEWEL TO PETER MARTYR. 

["Zurich Letters," First Series.] 

London, August 1, 1559. 
. . . Everything is in a ferment in Scotland. 
Knox, surrounded by a thousand followers, is holding 
assemblies throughout the whole kingdom. The old 



4 o ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

Queen (Regent) has been compelled to shut herself 
up in garrison. The nobility, with united hearts and 
hands, are restoring religion throughout the country, 
in spite of all opposition. All the monasteries are 
everywhere levelled with the ground : the theatrical 
dresses, the sacrilegious chalices, the idols, the altars, 
are consigned to the flames ; not a vestige of the 
ancient superstition and idolatry is left. What do 
you ask for ? You have often heard of drinking like a 
Scythian ; but this is churching it like a Scythian. The 
King of France that now is, styles himself King of 
Scotland, and in case of anything happening to our 
Queen, (which God forefend !) heir of England. You 
must not be surprised if our people are indignant at 
this ; and how the matter will at length turn out, God 
only can determine. A common enemy perhaps, as 
is sometimes the case, may be the occasion of 
reconciling with us our neighbour Scotland ; in 
which event, although the marriage [Elizabeth's] 
should also take place, — but I will not prognosticate. 
Master Heton salutes you, and that not less affec- 
tionately than if you were his father. Some of us are 
appointed to the bishopricks ; Cox to Ely, Scory to 
Hereford, Allen to Rochester, Grindal to London, 
Barlow to Chichester, and I, the least of the apostles, 
to Salisbury. But this burden I have positively 
determined to shake off. In the meantime there is a 
dismal solitude in our Universities. The young men 
are flying about in all directions, rather than come to 
an agreement in matters of religion. 

But my companions are waiting for me, and calling 
to me to set off. Farewell, therefore, my father, and 
my pride. . . . 

Yours every way most attached. 

John Jewel. 

Knox was adding fuel to the fire with both hands in 
Scotland, but he was the wrong man to encourage Elizabeth's 
open assistance, and he went the wrong way to work. He 
knew, as he informed Cecil, that his name had become odious 
to her through his "First Blast " against feminine rule. As 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 41 

she took no notice of a message which he sent to her through 
Cecil, disclaiming any intention of offending Elizabeth her- 
self, he wrote her a letter direct which was hardly calculated 
to smooth her maiden majesty's ruffled feathers — if indeed it 
ever reached her. Cecil is said to have withheld Knox's 
letters from his irascible mistress, who might only vent her 
wrath upon his own devoted head. Possibly he deemed it 
prudent to run no risk in this case : 

JOHN KNOX TO QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.] 

Edinburgh, July 20, 1559- 

To the virtuous and godly Elizabeth by the grace 
of God Queen of England, &c, John Knox desireth 
the perpetual increase of the Holy Spirit. 

As your grace's displeasure against me, most 
unjustly conceived, hath been and is to my wretched 
heart a burden grievous and almost intolerable : so 
is the testimony of a clean conscience to me a stay and 
uphold that in desperation I sink not. Maliciously 
or of purpose, I never offended your grace nor your 
realm. I cannot deny writing a book against the 
usurped authority and unjust regiment of women, 
nor am minded to retract any principal point thereof, 
till truth and verity further appear. But why your 
grace, or these that favour the liberty of England, 
should be offended with the author, I can perceive no 
just occasion, for my book touches not your grace's 
person in especial, nor is it prejudicial to the liberty 
of the realm, if the time and my writing be 
indifferently considered. How could I be enemy to 
your grace's person ? For deliverance whereof, I did 
more study, and enterprised farther, than any of those 
that now accuse me. And as concerning your regi- 
ment, how could, or can, I envy that which most I 
have trusted, and for the which (as oblivion will 
suffer) I render thanks unfeignedly unto God ? which 
is that it hath pleased Him of His eternal goodness, 
to exalt your head (which .... times was in danger 
to the manifestation of His glory and extirpation of 



42 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

idolatry.) For any other offence against England, 
I will let moderate and indifferent men judge 
between me and my accusers. To wit, which of the 
parties do most hurt the liberty of England — I that 
affirm that no woman may be exalted above any 
realm to make the liberties of the same thrall to a 
strange, proud and cruel nation ; or they that approve 
whatsoever pleases princes for the time ? If I were 
as well disposed to accuse, as some of them (to their 
own shame) have declared themselves, I nothing 
doubt but that in few words I should let reasonable 
men understand that some that this day lowly crouch 
to your grace, and labour to make me odious in your 
eyes, did in your adversity neither show themselves 
faithful friends to your grace, nor yet so loving and 
careful over their native country as now they would 
be esteemed. 

Nothing in my book is or can be prejudicial to 
your grace's just regiment, provided ye be not found 
ungrateful to God. Ungrateful ye shall be proved in 
presence of His throne (howsoever that flatteries 
justify your fact), if ye transfer the glory of that 
honour in which ye now stand to any other thing, 
than to the dispensation of His mercy, which only 
maketh that lawful to your grace which nature and 
law deny to any woman. Neither would I that your 
grace should fear that this your humiliation before 
God should in any case infirm or weaken your just 
and lawful authority before men. Nay Madam, such 
unfeigned confession of God's benefits received, shall 
be the establishment of the same not only to yourself 
but also to your seed and posterity ; where contrari- 
wise, a proud conceit and elevation of yourself shall 
be the occasion that your reign shall be unstable, 
troublesome and short. God is witness that un- 
feignedly I love and reverence your grace, yea, I 
pray that your reign may be long, prosperous and 
quiet, and that for the quietness which Christ's 
members, before persecuted, have received under 
you. But yet if I should flatter your grace, I were 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 43 

no friend, but a deceiving traitor. And therefore of 
conscience I am compelled to say, that neither the 
consent of people, the process of time, nor multitude 
of men, can establish a law which God shall approve, 
but whatsoever he approveth (by His eternal word) 
that shall be approved ; and whatsoever He condemns 
shall be condemned, though all men in earth would 
hazard the justification of the same. And therefore, 
Madam, the only way to retain and to keep those 
benefits of God abundantly poured now of late days 
upon you, and upon your realm, is, unfeignedly to 
render unto God, to His mercy and undeserved 
grace, the whole glory of this your exaltation. Forget 
your birth and all title which thereupon doth hinge, 
and consider deeply how for fear of your life ye did 
decline from God, and bow to idolatry. Let it not 
appear a small offence in your eyes, that ye have 
declined from Christ Jesus in the day of His battle, 
neither yet would I that ye should esteem that mercy 
to be vulgar and common which ye have received : to 
wit, that God hath covered your former offence, hath 
preserved you when ye were most unthankful, and 
in the end hath exalted and raised you up not only 
from the dust, but also from the portals of death, 
to rule above his people, for the comfort of His 
Church. 

It appertaineth to you therefore to ground the 
justice of your authority, not upon that law which 
from year to year doth change, but upon the eternal 
providence of Him who contrary to nature, and 
without your deserving, hath thus exalted your head. 
If thus in God's presence ye humble yourself, as in 
my heart I glorify God for that rest granted to His 
afflicted flock within England under you, a weak 
instrument, so will I with tongue and pen justify your 
authority and regiment, as the Holy Ghost hath 
justified the same in Deborah, that blessed mother 
in Israel ; but if, these premises (as God forbid) 
neglected, ye shall begin to brag of your birth, and 
to build your authority upon your own law, flatter you 



44 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

whoso list, your felicity shall be short. Interpret my 
rude words in the best part, as written by him who is 
no enemy to your grace. By divers letters I have 
required licence to visit your realm, not to seek 
myself, neither yet my own ease or commodity, which 
if you now refuse and deny, I must remit my cause 
unto God, adding this for conclusion, that commonly 
it is seen that such as refuse the counsel of the faithful 
(appear it never so sharp) are compelled to follow the 
deceit of flatterers to their own perdition. The 
mighty spirit of the Lord Jesus move your heart to 
understand what is said, give unto you the discretion 
of spirits, and so rule you in all your actions and 
enterprises, that in you God may be glorified, His 
Church edified, and ye yourself, as a lively member of 
the same, may be an example and mirror of virtue 
and of godly life to others. So be it. 

John Knox. 

Several dark plots against England were hatched at this 
time by the Spaniards. Camden asserts that in their 
fear that France would obtain England by means of Mary 
Stuart they seriously contemplated having a candidate ready 
of their own, planning for this purpose to carry off Lady 
Catherine Grey, sister of the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey, and 
a claimant to the succession through the Suffolk line. Sir 
Thomas Chaloner, the Queen's Ambassador in the Nether- 
lands — whence Philip was about to sail to his beloved Spain, 
never to return — corroborates this statement in his letter to 
the Queen herself. 

SIR THOMAS CHALONER TO QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

[Wright's "Queen Elizabeth and her Times."] 

August 3, 1559. 

Ill reports of your Majesty be here delivered ; the 
ground I think to be the frustrated suit of the King 
in his marriage with you — although, whatever rage 
they bear to us, they pretend it for the alteration ot 
religion by your Majesty. Count Feria told me he 



"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 45 

was sorry to see your present enemy the French only 
gaping for opportunity, you being without money, men, 
armour, fortresses, practice in war, or good Captains : 
11 And what a Council ! " quoth he, and so began say- 
ing that England would be another Milan to set the 
princes together by the ears — that the young King 
was ruled by your great enemy the Guises, and you 
should have heard of them before this, if his master 
would have given assent. Though the Spaniards do 
somewhat dislike us, yet in this low part in all 
conferences they take our part. A plot [has been] 
discovered by one Hoggin, that before the French 
King's death, the Spaniards meant to have stolen the 
Lady Catherine Grey, whom they meant either to 
marry to the Prince of Spain, or some other of less 
degree, if less depended on her. They take her 
discontented, not esteemed of your Highness nor her 
friends. He tells us of a letter sent from the Bishop 
of Aquila, part of it containing these words, Ho tanto 
tavder del Rey horn che los Inglesses se damn a Francia. 
How they condemn us, because we are unarmed, 
wanting exercise and soldiers ! I remember the 
Count Feria would say we had matter, but wanted 
form. An armed prince hath ever the quiet friend- 
ship of his neighbours. 

Both Feria and Quadra had kept their eyes on Lady 
Catherine Grey, flattering her with golden hopes to such an 
extent as somewhat to turn her head. Though given apart- 
ments with her sister in the palace at Whitehall she was 
dissatisfied with her position at Court, and fell a ready prey 
to the designing hands of the Spaniards. She vowed that 
she would neither marry nor change her religion without the 
Spanish Ambassador's consent. Nothing, however, came of 
the proposed attempt to carry her off, Cecil's ubiquitous 
spies disclosing the plot in time to put him effectually on 
guard against it. Elizabeth meantime was helping to bring 
matters to a crisis by surreptitiously sending Sir Ralph 
Sadler to the Scottish border with three thousand pounds 
to spend there " in furtherance of our service : " 



46 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

QUEEN ELIZAETH TO SIR RALPH SADLER. 
[Ellis's "Original Letters," Second Series.] 

August 7, 1559. 

Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. Like 
as we have, upon great trust conceived in you, con- 
ferred for special service to be done by you upon our 
frontiers towards Scotland, so do we authorize you to 
confer, treat, or practise with any manner of person 
of Scotland, either in furtherance of our service, and 
of any other thing that may tend to make a perpetual 
concord betwixt the nation of Scotland and ours. We 
do also authorize you to reward any manner of person 
of Scotland, with such sums of money as you shall 
think meet, to be taken of the sum of three thousand 
pounds which we have ordered should be delivered 
unto you in gold ; wherein such discretion and secrecy 
is to be used, as no part of your doings may impair 
the treaties of peace lately concluded betwixt us and 
Scotland. And for enlargement of our further mean- 
ing in this, we refer you to consider a memorial of 
certain articles to be delivered to you by our Secretary, 
whereunto you shall not need to have further respect 
than the opportunity of the time will require. Given 
under our Signet, the 7th of August, at Nonsuch, 
1559, the first year of our reign. 

It was characteristic of the diplomacy of the period that on 
the very day on which Elizabeth sent these secret instruc- 
tions to Sadler she also wrote a letter to " our dear sister and 
ally," the Queen Regent of Scotland, in which she protested 
against French insinuations that her subjects had been so 
unneighbourly as to meddle with her Scottish rebels, Noailles, 
the French Ambassador, having lodged a complaint with 
Elizabeth to that effect : 

ELIZABETH TO THE QUEEN REGENT OF SCOTLAND. 

[Froude's "History of England"} 

August 7, 1559. 

Right High and Right excellent Princess, our dear 
sister and ally, we commend ourselves to you most 



« DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 47 

cordially. We understand from the ambassador of 
our good brother the King of France, that certain of 
our officers on the frontiers have held intelligence with 
the rebels late in arms against your authority. We 
cannot but find it very strange that any of our sub- 
jects, and much more that persons in positions of 
public trust, should of their own accord, and regard- 
less of our displeasure, have sought means to meddle 
with any such people. Forasmuch, however, as at 
present we know no particulars of these things, — but, 
on being well informed, will proceed to punish the 
offenders — we must entreat you to specify more exactly 
what you complain of, and let us know the entire truth, 
to the end that after examination and proof, we may 
give orders for the chastisement of such as shall be 
found to have offended — which you may assure your- 
self we will not fail to do ; being, as we are, most 
desirous to show you that good will and friendship 
which we owe you as our neighbour, and to maintain 
those good relations which at present exist between 
us. 

A few weeks later Arran was safely smuggled into Eng- 
land and lodged first at Cecil's house and afterwards in the 
Royal apartments at Greenwich. Here Elizabeth, in secret, 
had her first interview with the man to whom she had been 
offered in vain in her childhood by her father, Henry VIII. 
He was now deluded with the hope not only of sharing her 
throne, but also of superseding Mary Stuart in Scotland, and 
so uniting the two kingdoms under the spiritual guidance of 
the reformed religion. 



CHAPTER II 

PLOTS AND SCANDALS 

How Elizabeth Hoodwinked the French Ambassador — England's 
Weakness — Quadra and the Austrian Match — Alleged Plot 
against Elizabeth and Dudley — Scandalous Tales — Appeasing 
the Catholics — Squabbles among Elizabeth's Suitors — Dudley- 
suspected of designs against his Wife's Life — Sir Thomas 
Chaloner's Warning — The Scottish Rebellion — Knox on the 
Beginning of the Struggle — Siege of Leith — Besiegers plead for 
Elizabeth's Help — Bothwell Captures English Money Intended 
for the Rebels — Elizabeth's Denials — Cecil's Despair — The 
Deciding Factor — Protest of the Catholic Bishops. 

Cecil and the leaders of the Scottish revolt were strongly 
in favour of the Arran match, but Elizabeth regarded the 
young earl merely as another useful pawn on her diplomatic 
chessboard, and used him accordingly. Even at that period 
Arran's brain was not all that it might have been — he was 
doomed to insanity for the last forty years of his life — -but 
he was overflowing with zeal when Elizabeth dispatched 
him to take his share in the struggle across the border. 
While feeding his hopes Elizabeth was careful also to keep 
her English and foreign suitors in as good countenance as 
possible. Arran was on his way to her when she paid her 
state visit to Nonsuch, whence her letters had been sent to 
Sadler and the Queen Regent. Nonsuch had been the 
royal residence near Ewell of Henry VIII., and the lease 
had apparently been obtained from Queen Mary by Arundel. 
Here that would-be wooer entertained Elizabeth for several 
days with the magnificence worthy of the premier earl of 
England. While Arran was hiding in London, too, later 
in the month, Bedford was sent to the Spanish Ambassador 
to assure him " that the affair of the Archduke's marriage 
was in a very good way, and he expected it would be settled " ; 
but, as Quadra said to his royal master, he knew " all about 
the going of the Duke of Chatelherault, or Earl of Arran 
(for he is called by either name), about whom no more is 



PLOTS AND SCANDALS 49 

known except that he is here." 1 The French Ambassador 
was more successfully gulled. On the day upon which 
Arran, after a last interview with the Queen, went north 
in the company of Thomas Randolph — their passports made 
out in the names of De Beaufort and Barnabee, and every 
precaution taken to prevent their identity from being dis- 
covered — M. de Noailles wrote to the Queen Regent assuring 
her of Elizabeth's repeated promises of good intentions 
towards peace and friendship : 

M. DE NOAILLES TO THE QUEEN REGENT OF 
SCOTLAND. 

[Teulet: " Papiers d'Etat relatifs a Vhistoire d'Ecosse."] 

London, September 1, 1559. 
Madame, 

Having received your packet of August 16th, with 
the letters you have written to this Queen, I sent 
forthwith to request audience, which was delayed 
until last Tuesday, because the said Lady was taken 
ill. On that day, after presenting to her your 
letters and very affectionate recommendations, I told 
her that having sent a nobleman to Scotland expressly 
to make known to you the good and favourable 
response which she had made to me regarding the 
evil conduct of the Earl of Northumberland and 
other Ministers of hers on the northern frontier, 
you had charged me fully to make it known to her 
that you were wondrously gratified at the continuance 
of the good friendship and mutual understanding 
which existed between the three kingdoms. Also 
that you wished still further to be lightened of 
the distrust and fear in which your rebels placed 
you every day regarding their certainty of every 
help from her and from her kingdom when they 
required it, even boasting of having letters frcm the 
said Lady and her Council. That arose largely from 
her subjects allowing the Scots to pass too easily 
into England without their holding letters from you, 

1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. L, p. 93. 
E.M.S. E 



50 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

as is required by the treaty ; in regard to which 
your Majesty had commanded me to make remon- 
strances to her, in order that she should attend to it 
in future. 

Concerning these things the said Lady answered 
me that, in the first place, it was quite likely that 
some of her ministers had been foolish enough to 
meddle with the evil practices among the Scots, but 
that she had ordered an inquiry to be made, and 
had sent a man expressly to set matters in order. 
Nevertheless, the Congregation would find they had 
greatly deceived themselves if they hoped for any 
favour from her in their foolish enterprise, and that 
she had neither written nor promised them anything 
to that effect. Her signature was easily recognized ; 
let it be produced if it could be found. She well 
knew that there were men who spread wicked lies in 
order to cause trouble. ... As to the Scots not 
being allowed to pass into this kingdom except they 
bear a letter from you : that was reasonable, and 
she had not understood that it had been done other- 
wise, and that she would forthwith give attention to 
it. And after talking of all these things, the said 
Lady showed me your portrait which she has in 
her gallery at Hampton Court, not without several 
references to your goodness, honesty, and virtue, 
and desiring me to present to you her very affec- 
tionate recommendations. And if one may judge by 
outward signs, she seems, Madame, to possess nothing 
but good intentions towards the maintenance of peace 
and friendship between your Majesties. 

So completely was Noailles hoodwinked by Elizabeth 
that five days later, in writing to M. D'Oyssel, he solemnly 
related how he informed the English Queen of Arran's escape 
from France, requiring her, in accordance with the terms 
of the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, to arrest him if he 
ventured into England and return him to Paris. Elizabeth, 
in no way abashed, promised that she would not fail to do 
what her good brother desired, should it be in her power, 



PLOTS AND SCANDALS 51 

but that she had heard nothing of Arran or his doings. 1 
He was beginning to see through Elizabeth, however. " She 
has more dissimulation than sincerity or honesty," he wrote 
on October 12th, adding that "few people living can play 
that game so well as she." She was equally astute in her 
dealings with her lovers. To each the Queen made a point 
of giving sufficient encouragement to excite the jealousy of 
the others, except, perhaps, to her Swedish suitor, whose 
ambassadors were openly made fun of in masques in their 
own presence. " The Swedish Ambassadors," wrote Quadra 
to the King of Spain, " are leaving much aggrieved and 
offended, as I believe it was brought to their notice that 
they were being made fun of in the palace, and by the 
Queen more than by anybody." 2 The ambassador of the 
King of Denmark, on the other hand, " to demonstrate his 
King's love for Queen Elizabeth, wore upon his gown a 
crimson velvet heart pierced by an arrow." 3 Quadra's 
hope, as will be seen in his next letter, written about the 
same date, was that Elizabeth's double dealing would land 
her into so many difficulties that she would presently be 
forced to marry the Archduke Charles as her only hope of 
safety : 

BISHOP QUADRA TO THE EMPEROR FERDINAND I. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

Baron Preyner will have informed your Majesty 
that the affairs of this country are in a very bad way, 
as the Queen has thought to weaken the French by 
dragging them into a war in Scotland, and foment- 
ing religious discord in that country, and even in the 
State itself. She favours the Duke of Chatelherault, 
with whom she thought of marrying, and it is difficult 
to see now how she can prevent her own house catching 
fire. I have no doubt the King of France will very 
soon be able to dispose of this country with the same 
troops that he will send to subdue Scotland. He is 

1 Teulet: " Papiers d'Etat relatifs a l'histoire d'Ecosse," Vol. I., 

P- 342. 

2 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 93. 

3 Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII., p. 117. 

E 2 



52 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

at present submitting to any conditions for the pur- 
pose of separating these people from their alliance 
with the Scottish rebels, and then after he has punished 
the latter, he will turn his army into this country. 

This danger is enough to decide the Queen to 
marry the Archduke, which would rescue her and 
give the country peace and strength, but her religious 
feeling runs so high that she and her Councillors will 
never dare to trust his Highness. They think it 
would be taken as a sign that they had some secret 
understanding with my King both in religion and in 
other matters. In addition to this they are so taken 
up with the idea of their power and strength that it 
is impossible to open their eyes, although their feeble- 
ness is notorious, and they have neither money nor 
fortresses in the country, they are divided amongst 
themselves, and have a wilful woman for a monarch. 

My King has had all this clearly pointed out to 
them, but to no purpose, notwithstanding that all the 
country is crying out that salvation can only come 
from a marriage with the Archduke. Perhaps time 
and the pressure of danger may bring the Queen to 
consent to it, and if it do not then we shall not 
have lost much by having patience and waiting six 
months. 

Quadra was voicing a widespread opinion that marriage and 
Spanish protection were the only means left to save England 
from falling into the hands of the French. England's fighting 
strength had fallen to its lowest ebb in Mary's reign, the loss 
of Calais, after being held for two hundred years, being 
regarded as the measure of her weakness. The whole 
population of the kingdom, including Wales, did not exceed, 
it has been estimated, more than four millions, while that 
of either Spain or France was probably three or four times 
as great. Both powers, too, in trained troops, arms, and 
artillery, were immeasurably stronger than England. It is 
only by realising this that the dangers and difficulties of 
Elizabeth's position may be fully appreciated. Quadra 
underestimated the value of her policy of procrastination 



PLOTS AND SCANDALS 53 

and the increasing power of her navy. He was also hood- 
winked by some wonderful story — possibly true, but more 
probably concocted by Elizabeth and Dudley — of a plot to 
poison both herself and her favourite during her recent 
visit to the Earl of Arundel at Nonsuch. The agent em- 
ployed in this new move was Dudley's sister, wife of Sir 
Henry Sidney of Penshurst, and one of Elizabeth's Women 
of the Bedchamber : 

BISHOP QUADRA TO THE DUCHESS OF PARMA. 
[Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

September y, 1559. 

The Emperor's Ambassador and I having been 
advised by one of the ladies of the palace, a sister of 
Lord Robert, called Lady Sidney, that this was the 
best time to speak to the Queen about the Archduke 
[Charles], the Ambassador went to Hampton Court, 
where the Queen is living, to see her on the subject. 
The lady would not speak herself, but urged that I 
should go, and said if I broached the matter of the 
match to the Queen now she was sure it would be 
speedily settled. I tried to discover what this might 
mean, and find that the Queen is much alarmed at a 
plot which they have told her of against her and 
Robert, the object of which was to kill him at a 
banquet given recently to the Queen by the Earl of 
Arundel, where also the Queen was to be poisoned. 
This plot, together with the French war preparations 
for Scotland, seems to have decided the Queen to marry, 
and Lady Sidney said that at all events I ought to be 
there, and must not mind what the Queen said, as it 
is the custom of the ladies here not to give their con- 
sent in such matters until they are teased into it. 
She said it would only take a few days, and the 
Council would press her to marry. Lady Sidney said 
that if this were not true, I might be sure she would 
not say such a thing, as it might cost her her life, and 
she was acting now with the Queen's consent, but 
she (the Queen) would not speak to the Emperor's 



54 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

Ambassador about it. We were rather undecided 
what course to take for the moment, but they are 
now making so much of us that all London looks 
upon the affair as settled. 

Lady Sidney said the Queen wished the Archduke 
to come at once, and I ought to write to the Emperor 
to send him, which he could do on her honour and 
word, and she (Lady Sidney) would never dare to 
say such a thing as she did in the presence of an 
Italian gentleman, who was interpreting between us 
(although we can understand each other in Italian 
without him), unless it were true. I said I was not 
quite sure what I ought to do, but I had no doubt the 
Archduke would come if his father allowed him, and 
I would write at once. I afterwards spoke to Lord 
Robert, who said in this, as in all things, he was at 
the disposal of my King, to whom he owed his life. 
Treasurer Parry also spoke to me on the subject of 
his own accord, and from him I gathered that the 
Queen is driven to this by fear, and when I said what a 
pity it was that the Queen was so irresolute, he said 
when I next went to the Palace he hoped to give me 
good news. I spoke to him about Lady Sidney, and 
he said the Queen had summoned both of them the 
night before, and at the end of our conversation he 
said that the marriage had now become necessary. 



" It is curious how things change," wrote the delighted 
Quadra two days later, in telling the Duke of Alba how 
" they cannot make too much of me here at Hampton Court 
now." He was perfectly ready to believe Dudley when that 
pliable courtier vowed that he was the most faithful servant 
the Spanish sovereign had in England. " Lord Robert and 
his sister," he wrote to the Bishop of Arras, " are certainly 
acting splendidly, and the King will have to reward them 
well." x His next letter shows how cleverly Elizabeth acted 
her part, without committing herself one way or the other, 
yet succeeding in satisfying the bishop that she really meant 
to marry the Archduke Charles after all : 

1 Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 96. 



PLOTS AND SCANDALS 55 

BISHOP QUADRA TO THE EMPEROR FERDINAND. 
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, October 2, 1559. 

. . . Since the last letter to your Majesty, Lady 
Sidney told the Queen everything that had passed 
with me, and how she had given me hopes that this 
business would be carried through, and had assured 
me that the only thing wanting was that the Archduke 
should come, whereupon I had said that I had written 
to your Majesty to that effect on her word alone. . . . 
On Thursday, when the Queen came to London, the 
ambassador [Preyner] went to accompany her, and I 
believe that in the barge the Queen herself began to 
speak about the business to him, and he will write to 
your Majesty what passed between them. I think, 
however, she and he merely repeated the usual things, 
although Preyner says she opened out more than 
hitherto, saying that she thought she should be forced 
to marry. Preyner says that all her endeavour was 
to find out something about the Archduke's coming, 
of which he gave her no hope, unless she first signified 
her wish and summoned him, as we have always 
urged, and she has always refused to do. When she 
arrived I went on Saturday to inform her of the King's 
arrival in Spain, and speak on other matters. After 
finishing my business I was about to take my leave, 
when she began to talk about the marriage, and told 
me how the ambassador had spoken to her in the 
barge, and gave me a long history of what had passed 
between them. I let her talk, and quite understood 
that she would have liked to know whether the Arch- 
duke was coming, which is the only thing she thinks 
about. 

After letting her talk as long as she liked, I said 
that I had perhaps already gone further than I ought 
to have done in this business, as your Majesty had a 
man of your own here, but that I knew that neither 
your Majesty, nor the King my master, would regret 
any effort made to forward it, and therefore I would 



56 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

still give her my frank opinion, which was that she 
remained in so exacting a determination, and was so 
very far from answering your Majesty's request, that 
no arrangement was possible. The desire of your 
Majesty was to know whether she would marry the 
Archduke, and her answer was that she did not want 
to marry him or anybody else, and if she married at 
all it would only be to a man whom she knew. In 
addition to this she said that she did not wish the 
Archduke to come, by any means, as she did not wish 
to bind herself even indirectly to marry him. I told 
her that if some compromise could not be come to it 
was not worth while to lose time over it. I thought 
the best way would be for her first to premise that she 
had to be married, as she saw she could not avoid it, 
and, since she said she would not marry a man she 
did not know, that she should be pleased to let the 
Archduke come over for her to see, without her being 
bound more than she is at present, and that your 
Majesty should be informed of this, so that if you 
decided to send your son on these conditions it might 
be done without loss of time. We were at this for a 
long time wasting words, and at last she said the 
following words to me, which I copy here that your 
Majesty may the better consider them. She said, 
" Shall I speak plainly and tell you the truth ? I 
" think that if the Emperor so desires me for a 
" daughter he would not be doing too much by 
" sending his son here without so many safeguards. 
" I do not hold myself of so small account that the 
" Emperor need sacrifice any dignity in doing it." 

By these words and her manner of saying them I 
understood that she made no difficulty as to the con- 
clusion of the business, but only in the procedure to 
bring it about. They think we are treating the matter 
punctiliously with her, and that your Majesty wishes 
your son to be supplicated and summoned, which she 
said she would never do ; she would rather die a 
thousand deaths. She says it is not fit for a queen 
and a maiden to summon anyone to marry her for her 



PLOTS AND SCANDALS 57 

pleasure, and Lady Sidney has said the same thing to 
me many times. Seeing this, and that she made no 
difficulty about the substance, I thought we need not 
make any about the rest, and I told her that if this 
was the only difficulty I thought none would be raised 
by your Majesty in sending your son hither, but that 
your Majesty could not guess that she wished to 
negotiate in this way, and as the coming of the Arch- 
duke might displease her, it was necessary that your 
Majesty should be satisfied as to her wishes on the 
point. She answered that no one would ever know 
them from her, except by asking and proposing it to 
her in your Majesty's name. At first I appeared 
pleased at this contention, and then said be it so, and 
that in the name of your Majesty I proposed to her 
whether she would be pleased to allow the Archduke 
to come and see her without any obligation on her to 
marry him. She asked whether your ambassador or 
I was commissioned to propose this. I said that if I 
told her we were so commissioned she would know 
that I was not telling the truth, as she was aware that 
nothing had ever been said to us about the visit until 
now that some of her household recommended it to 
me. She thought I was going to tell her about 
Lady Sidney's conversation, and drew back a little 
as if surprised ; but as I saw that she did not wish 
to be approached on that side I said, and repeated, 
that your Majesty had never understood that it would 
be a good way to negotiate to send your son to be 
married in a quarter where the only answer ever 
vouchsafed was that there was no idea of marrying at 
all. Now, however, that it is understood that the visit 
may be convenient and advantageous he perhaps 
would be sent, and, with this end, I begged her to 
tell me whether she would be pleased that he should 
come. She smiled and said that she prevented no one 
from coming to her realm, and I replied that that was 
not the kind of licence I craved, for even Turks could 
come in that manner, but that I wanted to know 
whether she would be pleased for him to come and 



58 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

see her as a suitor for her hand. She answered that 
she could give no reply to that unless it was asked in 
your Majesty's name. I saw this was only vanity, 
and being desirous to obtain a reply, I said that as 
she did not wish to reply to this except it came in your 
Majesty's name, which she saw could not be done at 
present, it occurred to me to put the question in the 
name of the King my master, who as a friend and 
kinsman of both parties would be glad to know her 
wishes in order to be able to advise your Majesty on 
the matter. She was pleased at this expedient, and, 
after expressing some regret that your Majesty should 
desire her so little as to need persuasion before con- 
descending to send your son hither, she told me that 
she would be glad for the Archduke to come, and 
asked me what languages he spoke. 

We chatted on the subject very pleasantly for some 
time, and in a vastly different mood from her other 
conversations about her not wishing to marry. So 
much so that I told her that if it were not that I feared 
to arouse the suspicion of those present I would kiss 
her hand for such a gracious answer, and then, to 
draw her out still further, I asked her whether she 
thought the Archduke should come publicly or secretly, 
as we wished to do nothing displeasing to her. She 
drew back again at this, and said she did not wish to 
be pressed any more ; he should do as he thought fit, 
and she did not want to know anything about his 
coming. I said I thought it would be better for him 
to come privately, as I knew that was what she wished, 
and she replied that she hoped to God that no evil 
would befall him coming in this way. During this 
conversation she reminded me that we were to agree 
that she was not to be bound to marry the Archduke 
if he came, and knowing that this was only dissimula- 
tion, and that she really means to marry him, as I 
think, for otherwise she would never consent to his 
coming, which she has always refused hitherto, I 
agreed to this condition, and said all should be as 
she wished, and I was sure the Archduke would suffer 



PLOTS AND SCANDALS 59 

no loss of dignity by coming to see her Majesty, even 
though she might not marry him. I did not throw 
any doubt upon his coming, as I knew it would vex 
her, and, because your Majesty is not bound in any 
way by what I proposed, which was all conditional on 
your Majesty's will and was done in the name of the 
King my master as intermediary. What I have aimed 
at in these conversations is to show her that I under- 
stood her, and I said I conceded at once the condition 
she imposed, because I knew that the condition would 
become unnecessary as soon as she saw the Archduke, 
with whom she would certainly be satisfied, and whom 
she would not allow to go out of England again. 
Sometimes she was silent at this way of talking, but 
when I pressed her much she seemed frightened, and 
protested again and again that she was not to be 
bound, and that she was not resolved yet whether she 
should marry ; but this was after we had agreed 
about the Archduke's visit. At length, to give me to 
understand that she was serious in her demand, she 
repeated what we had agreed upon in order that I 
should put it in writing, and when I took this as a 
joke she said she would not trust me, as she knew I 
was deceiving her, and she would write to the King 
herself, that he might bear witness that she would 
bind herself to nothing, and had not asked the Arch- 
duke to come. I thereupon kissed her hand and told 
her I was glad that this account would not depend 
upon my recollection, and I should be quite easy with 
what she wrote. I expect she will write these pro- 
testations very seriously, but her letter must be 
explained jointly with mine, and her words need not 
cause any alarm, as they are certainly nothing but 
ceremony. I might easily be deceived myself, but I 
do not believe that Lady Sidney and Lord Robert 
could be mistaken, and the latter says he never 
thought the Queen would go so far. 

Even Cecil, though perhaps preferring the Arran alliance, 
promised Quadra to support the Austrian match, going so far 



60 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

as to declare that they could not avoid ruin if the Queen did 
not marry the Archduke. The Queen, he said, hoped that 
Philip would not abandon her in this strait, " and I told him 
that if this marriage were brought about I was sure that the 
King would not only renew the alliance and unity with this 
country, but would do more than was expected, because the 
Archduke was his first cousin ; to which he replied that if 
this were so he was sure the King of France would not at 
present attempt the conquest of the country, as both my 
King and your Majesty [the Emperor] would defend it, 
which I admitted, always on condition that the marriage was 
effected, but keeping silence when this condition was not 
mentioned. He told me also that the Queen was sending 
large forces to the frontier of Scotland and that a great fleet 
was being collected ; but all this with so little spirit and in 
such a manner that it is clear they are much alarmed." x 
Cecil had reason to be worried — by affairs at home as well as 
across the border. The Queen made no secret of her 
preference for her married Master of the Horse, and her 
intimacy with him gave rise to scandals which added not a 
little to the Secretary's anxieties. Elizabeth herself was well 
aware of these tales, as will be seen in Quadra's next letter : 

BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, October 5, 1559. 

... In my last interview with the Queen, while I 
was urging and persuading her to consent to the 
Archduke's visit, she said she did not dare to summon 
him, as she feared he might not be satisfied with her. 
I said that could not be, as she was so well endowed 
by nature, and other things to the same effect, where- 
upon she replied that he might not be dissatisfied 
with what he saw, but with what he heard about her, 
as I knew there were people in the country who took 
pleasure in saying anything that came into their 
heads about her. This she said with some signs of 
shame, and I answered that we who were treating of 
the Emperor's business were not so badly informed 

1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., pp. 103 — 4. 
\ 



PLOTS AND SCANDALS 61 

that we did not know something of what was 
necessary in deciding the affair, and her Majesty might 
be sure that if there were anything which the Arch- 
duke should not hear or learn, the idea of his coming 
would not have been entertained by us, and this being 
so, she could understand thereby the high esteem in 
which your Majesty had always held her, and with 
this I tried all I could to change the subject, signify- 
ing that there was no need to speak of it. I saw she 
was pleased, as she no doubt thought that if the 
Archduke heard any of the idle tales they tell about 
her (and they tell many) he might take advantage of 
them to the detriment of her honour if the match were 
broken off, and, although from this point of view I 
was not sorry, as the fear may not be without 
advantage to us, I thought well for all other reasons 
to say that I grieved greatly that Her Majesty should 
imagine such things, and should think that the Arch- 
duke was capable of any other thought than that of 
serving her in any case, whether she married him or 
not, and that such considerations were not worthy of 
her rank or that of the Archduke. The same remark 
had been made by me before in conversation by Lady 
Sidney, only I understood then that she was com- 
plaining of the rivals her brother had. At any rate 
the Queen now remains without a shadow of misgiving 
on the point, and I am in great hope that it would 
not have occurred to her unless she thought the 
marriage would take place. . . . 

Feria understood his Elizabeth better than did the Bishop 
of Aquila, to whom he wrote from Malines on October 14 : 
" I should be glad if that woman (Elizabeth) were quite to 
lose her head and bring matters to a point, although when I 
think what a baggage she is, and what a crew she is 
surrounded by, there is probability enough of my wish 
coming true. It seems the Emperor up to the present 
refuses leave for his son to go, and to tell the truth, I cannot 
persuade myself that he is wrong, nor do I believe that she 
will either marry him, or refuse to marry him, while the 



62 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

matter at issue is only his visit. Real necessity, however, 
may make her open her eyes and marry, although the laxity 
of the neighbouring princes may still allow her to deceive 
herself." l The truth was that Elizabeth realised the 
necessity of remaining on the best terms with Philip and the 
Emperor while the French peril existed in Scotland. It was 
for the same reason that she gave fresh encouragement to the 
Catholics, though Quadra this time was not to be deceived. 
" The crucifixes and vestments that were burnt a month ago 
publicly," he wrote to the Bishop of Arras on October 9, 
" are now set up again in the royal chapel, as they soon will 
be all over the kingdom, unless, which God forbid, there is 
another change next week. They are doing it out of sheer 
fear to pacify the Catholics, but as forced favours are no 
sign of affection they often do more harm than good." 2 The 
bishops-elect and other ardent reformers were horrified at 
these reactionary signs, and Cecil, apparently, had to bear 
the brunt of their displeasure, as well as of the Queen's 
uncertain temper : 

BISHOP QUADRA TO THE COUNT DE FERIA. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

October 29, 1559. 

. . . Bedford attacked Cecil the other day about 
the crucifix, and the Queen also insulted him for some 
other cause unknown to me. The heretic Bishops 
are grumbling to her about their revenues, and are 
beginning to preach against her ; in fact, if I were to 
tell you all that is going on I should never finish. 
The harvest is ripe if there were someone to come and 
reap it, but I can see no hope of that except from 
heaven. Your Lordship's opinion with regard to the 
Queen's marriage would hold good in the case of a 
woman of brains and conscience, with which this 
one is not troubled, but, as it is, I think she either 
will not marry, or, if she do, it will only be because 
she has brought the Archduke here and likes him. 
Her need cannot be greater than it is, nor does it suit 

1 Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 105. 

2 Ibid., p. 106. 



PLOTS AND SCANDALS 63 

us that it should be so, as that would mean an appeal 
to arms, which I believe His Majesty does not desire. 
The best feature in the match with the Archduke is 
that the French would retire from the business, and 
the minds of Catholics and heretics would calm down, 
as both would think he would favour their side. In 
this respect all the heretics are quite content that he 
should be a Catholic so long as he leaves them at 
liberty, and I feel sure the Queen would do the same, 
as she is certainly tired of the vapourings she gave way 
to at first. It will be well for your Lordship to urge 
the coming of the Archduke, as it is most important, 
and the ambassador is sending one of his gentlemen 
to the Emperor to press it. The freedom of these 
blackguards annoys me beyond measure, as the Queen 
says the most extraordinary things, and I always have 
a retort for every word, which greatly offends but does 
not frighten her, whereas I should like to follow an 
exactly contrary course, first making much of her, and 
then give her some gall syrup in the form of news of 
leagues against her, which she fears most. 

Here we are, ten or twelve ambassadors, competing 
for her favour, and now they say the Duke of Holstein, 
brother of the King of Denmark, is coming, and, as 
they tell me, not a worse-looking man than the Arch- 
duke. The King of Sweden's son, who is here, is fit 
to kill the Emperor's ambassador, because he said his 
father was only a clown who had stolen his kingdom 
from the crown of Denmark, and the matter has 
reached such a point that the Queen is careful they 
should not meet in the palace to avoid their slashing 
each other in her presence. To crown it all they are 
making mischief with me about it. 

The other day when Pickering was going into the 
chapel, which is inside the Queen's apartments, the 
Earl of Arundel came to the door and told him he 
knew very well that that was a place for lords, and he 
must go to the presence chamber. The other 
answered that he knew that, and he also knew that 
Arundel was an impudent, discourteous knave, which 



64 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

the earl heard, and went out without answering a 
word, leaving the other to enter. Pickering tells it in 
public, and refrains from challenging him as he holds 
him of small account, but it is only right that he 
should refrain, as the other is very weak. 

This was not the first time that Pickering had openly 
picked a quarrel with the nobles of the Court, who now 
scorned the airs and arrogance of this upstart favourite. 
He was fully trusted neither by the Protestants nor the 
Catholics, and gradually dropped out of the running. In 
the previous month he had sent a challenge to the Earl of 
Bedford for having spoken ill of him at a banquet, choosing, 
of all unlikely men as his second, Lord Robert Dudley, but 
Dudley, though his rival in the Queen's affections, was also 
a hearty despiser of the extreme Protestants, to which 
section Bedford belonged, and promised to deliver the 
challenge. Bedford, however, who was something of a 
physical freak, was, like Arundel, no fighting man, and 
nothing apparently came of it. " I do not believe that 
Bedford will ever quarrel with anybody," wrote Quadra, in 
mentioning this incident to the Duke of Alba. 

Meantime, Elizabeth, the arch flirt, was perfectly content 
to have all her lovers at her feet at once, in spite of the 
critical state of affairs in Scotland, and the increasing danger 
of French influence there. " The woman's troubles are 
growing apace," wrote the Spanish Ambassador exultantly to 
the Duchess of Parma, " and her house will be in a blaze 
before she knows it. ... A plot was made the other day 
to murder Lord Robert," added Quadra a little later, 
" and it is now common talk and threat. The plot was 
headed by the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Surrey, and all 
the principal adherents of the Archduke. The Queen and 
Robert are very uneasy about the Duke of Norfolk, as he 
talks openly about her lightness and bad government. 
People are ashamed of what is going on, and particularly the 
Duke, as he is Lord Robert's enemy." x It was about this 
time that the sinister rumours began to circulate to the effect 
that Dudley meant to get rid of his wife in order to marry 

1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 107. 



PLOTS AND SCANDALS 65 

the Queen. This was some ten months before the actual 
tragedy which cost Amy Robsart her life. Quadra referred 
to these rumours in the letter containing a long account of 
two further unsatisfactory interviews with the Queen, in the 
course of which she declared that whoever had assured him 
that she meant to marry the Archduke when he came " had 
done this with good intentions, but without any commission 
from her." Not but that she might still do so if only he 
would come, etc., etc. . . . 

BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, November 13, 1559. 

The matter of the Queen's marriage being in the 
position explained to your Majesty in recent letters, a 
position which gave hopes of its being brought about, 
I received certain news which forced me to try to get 
a definite declaration from the Queen, whatever the 
result might be, rather than the Archduke should be 
deceived when he arrived here. What moved me to 
ascertain her wishes was that I noticed Lord Robert 
was slackening in our business, and favouring the 
Swedish match, and that he had had words with his 
sister because she was carrying the affair further than 
he desired, but principally because I had heard from 
a certain person who is accustomed to give me 
veracious news that Lord Robert has sent to poison 
his wife. Certainly all the Queen has done with us 
and with the Swede, and will do with the rest in the 
matter of her marriage, is only keeping Lord Robert's 
enemies and the country engaged with words until 
this wicked deed of killing his wife is consummated. 
The same person told me some extraordinary things 
about this intimacy, which I would never have 
believed, only that now I find Lord Robert's enemies 
in the Council making no secret of their evil opinion 
of it. . . . 

As I knew that the Duke of Norfolk was the chief 
of Lord Robert's enemies, who are all the principal 

E.M.S. F 



66 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

people in the kingdom, and that he had said that if 
Lord Robert did not abandon his present pretensions 
and presumption he would not die in his bed, I got 
the Ambassador to write to him, Norfolk, and also 
wrote myself, and we sent a gentleman interpreter of 
ours to him with Lord Sidney (sic), who is a kinsman 
of Robert's, and a great adherent of the Duke, with 
instructions to give him an account of all that had 
happened in this business, and the point to which we 
had brought it, in order that we might obtain his 
countenance and advice. He replied very graciously, 
and sent word that he should rejoice greatly if the 
affair could be brought about, and was of opinion that 
the Archduke should come publicly and ostentatiously, 
in which case he (Norfolk) would stake his right arm 
that he would give us the votes of all the biggest and 
best in the land. He himself would come here to be 
present at the reception of the Archduke, to whom he 
wished to speak before he entered London, and asked 
us to endeavour to get him appointed by the Queen 
to go to meet him. I think this hatred of Lord 
Robert will continue, as the Duke and the rest of 
them cannot put up with his being King. I am of 
opinion if the Archduke comes and makes the 
acquaintance and obtains the goodwill of these 
people, even if this marriage — of which I have now 
no hope except by force — should fall through, and 
any disaster were to befall the Queen, such as may 
be feared from her bad government, the Archduke 
might be summoned to marry Lady Catherine [Grey], 
to whom the kingdom falls if this woman dies. If 
the Archduke sees her (Catherine) he should so bear 
himself that she should understand this design, 
which in my opinion may be beneficial and even 
necessary. . . . 

Postscript: The son of the King of Sweden went 
to-day to visit the Queen, and being tired of waiting 
in an antechamber he went away to his house without 
saying a word to anybody. I think he is un- 
deceived now, after scattering large sums of money 



PLOTS AND SCANDALS 67 

amongst these people and showing himself off to the 
Queen. 1 

The relations between Dudley and the Duke of Norfolk 
grew from bad to worse. One day, wrote Quadra, the Duke 
" spoke out so plainly to Lord Robert that they separated 
abruptly, and Robert told him he was neither a good 
Englishman nor a loyal subject who advised the Queen to 
marry a foreigner. Things are very strained between them, 
and the Duke has gone home in dudgeon." 2 As for Elizabeth, 
Quadra in wrath and despair was at last forced to admit that 
she was altogether beyond him. " Your lordship," he wrote 
towards the end of the year to the Count de Feria, " will see 
what a pretty business it is to have to treat with this woman, 
who, I think, must have a hundred thousand devils in her 
body, notwithstanding that she is for ever telling me she 
yearns to be a nun, and to pass her time in a cell praying. I 
have heard great things of a sort that cannot be written 
about, and you will understand what they must be by that." 3 
The indiscretions of the Queen and her favourite Dudley had 
now become a subject of such general remark as to call forth 
a solemn warning from Sir Thomas Chaloner, whose negotia- 
tions at the Imperial Court led him strongly to favour the 
acceptance of the Archduke Charles : 

SIR THOMAS CHALONER TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 

[Haynes: " Burghley State Papers.''] 

I assure you, sir, these folks are broad-mouthed 
where I spake of one too much in favour, as they 
esteem ; I think ye guess whom they named ; if ye do 
not, I will upon my next letters write further. To 
tell you what I conceive — as I count the slander most 
false, so a young princess cannot be too wary what 
countenance or familiar demonstration she maketh, 
more to one than another. I judge no man's service 

1 This son of the King of Sweden was the young Duke of Finland, 
who had been sent over on a new embassy to further the suit 
of his brother Eric, referred to on p. 4. Apparently he determined 
to try for Elizabeth's hand himself, but with no better success than 
his brother. 

2 Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 117^ 

3 Ibid., p. 119. 

F 2 



68 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

in the realm worth the entertainment with such a tale 
of obloquy, or occasion of speech to such men as of 
evil will are ready to find faults. This delay of ripe 
time for marriage, besides the loss of the realm (for 
without posterity of her highness what hope is left 
unto us ?) ministereth matter to these leud tongues to 
descant upon, and breedeth contempt. I would I had 
but one hour's talk with you. Think if I trusted not 
your good nature, I would not write thus much ; 
which nevertheless I humbly pray you to reserve as 
written to yourself. 

Consider how ye deal now in the emperor's matter : 
much dependeth on it. Here they hang in expecta- 
tion as men desirous it should go forward, but yet 
they have small hope : In mine opinion (be it said to 
you only) the affinity is great and honourable : the 
amity necessary to stop and cool many enterprises. 
Ye need not fear his greatness should overrule you ; 
he is not a Philip, but better for us than a Philip. 
Let the time work for Scotland as God will, for sure 
the French, I believe, shall never long enjoy them : 
and when we be stronger and more ready, we may 
proceed with that, that is yet unripe. The time itself 
will work, when our great neighbours fall out next. 
In the mean time settle we things begun ; and let us 
arm and fortify our frontiers. 

Affairs in Scotland had moved swiftly since Arran crossed 
the border after his inspiring interviews with Elizabeth. 
We must hark back a few weeks to pick up the threads of 
this part of our story. On his arrival Arran had speedily 
won over to the reformers' camp his weak and wavering 
father, the Duke of Chatelherault. Encouraged by this and 
the hope of Elizabeth's help, the Lords of the Congrega- 
tion sent a letter to the Queen Regent, which practically 
amounted to an ultimatum, demanding that the fortifications 
which her French troops were building at Leith — where 
they had lately landed a thousand strong — should be dis- 
continued, and that all foreigners, including the garrison, 
should be dismissed. Mary of Guise, however, was the last 



PLOTS AND SCANDALS 69 

woman in the world to be brow-beaten in this fashion. In 
spite of the dropsical disease which kept her to her sick 
chamber in the newly raised fortifications, she sent for her 
Lion Herald King-at-Arms, and returned a verbal reply to 
her rebellious nobles, indicating at length her attitude, and 
declining to accede to any of their demands. She bade the 
Lord Lion in conclusion to " require the Duke of Chatel- 
herault and the other nobles to separate themselves from the 
insurgents, and leave Edinburgh forthwith, under penalty of 
being proclaimed traitors." Then, with haughty brevity 
— far more effective than any outburst of passion — she wrote 
the following letter to the lords who, by the signing of 
the reformers' covenant of 1557, had constituted them- 
selves heads of the Scottish Church — the " Congregation of 
the Lord" — just as Elizabeth had been nominated "only 
Supreme Governor" of the Church in England: 

THE QUEEN REGENT OF SCOTLAND TO THE LORDS 
OF THE CONGREGATION. 

[Strickland's "Lives of the Queens of Scotland."] 

Leith, October 21, 1559. 

After commendations, we have received your letter 
from Edinburgh the 19th of this instant, which 
appeareth to us rather to have come from a Prince 
to his subjects, than from subjects to them that have 
authority — whereof we have presently directed unto 
you this bearer, Lion Herald King-of-Arms, suffi- 
ciently instructed with our mind, to whom ye shall 
give credence. 

Mary R. 

Thereupon the rebellious lords, realising that there was 
no time to be lost, passed a resolution formally suspending 
Mary from all authority as Regent of the realm. This 
they paradoxically proclaimed from the market cross at 
Edinburgh in the name of their sovereign lord and lady, 
the Queen Regent's own daughter and son-in-law, Mary 
Stuart and Francis II. Knox himself has left a letter 
exactly explaining the situation at this date : 



70 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

JOHN KNOX TO MR. RAYLTON. i 

[Wright's "Queen Elizabeth and her Times.''''} 

Edinburgh, October 23, 1559. 

. . . The alteration that be here is this — the Queen 
Regent, with public consent of the Lords and Barons 
assembled, is deprived of all authority and regiment 
[rule] among us. She, Frenchmen, and assistants 
are by open proclamation declared and denounced 
enemies and traitors to this commonwealth, for that 
being thrice required and charged to desist from the 
fortification of Leith, she and they do obstinately 
proceed in their wicked enterprise. This was done 
this Monday before noon. There shall be appointed 
to occupy the authority a great council, the president 
and chief head whereof shall be my Lord Duke 
[Chatelherault]. The authority of the French King 
and Queen is yet received, and will be in works till 
they deny our most just requests which you shall, 
God willing, shortly hereafter understand, together 
with our whole proceedings from the beginning of 
this matter, which we are to set forth in manner 
of history. 

The battle is begun sharp enough ; God give the 
issue to His glory and our comfort ! She hath yet 
small advantage, as for the death of two of our 
soldiers, and for the hurting of three gentlemen, she 
hath lost two captains and hath for wounded many 
of her chief soldiers, to the number of twenty upon 
a day. 

They brag, and the Queen especially, that ye will 
leave us in the midst of the trouble, and this she 
hath of her last post which came by you. My battle 
to this day hath been very bitter, but if ye frustrate 
my expectation and the promise that I have made in 
your name, I regard not how few my dolorous days 
shall be. What God hath wrought by me in this 

1 A note in the Sadler Papers states that " Raylton seems to have 
been a sort of private secretary or decipherer." Wright, in 
reprinting the letter, is more inclined to think that Raylton was a 
feigned name for somebody in a more conspicuous position. 




[Plioto, Emery Walker 
JOHN KNOX 
After the portrait in the National Portrait Gallery 



PLOTS AND SCANDALS 71 

matter I will not now write. But this I may say, 
that such offers are refused that more do judge us 
fools, than do praise our constancy. We are deter- 
mined to essay the uttermost, but first we must have 
three thousand more soldiers, for if we assault and 
be repulsed, then shall our enterprise be in great 
hazard. And our commons are not able to abide 
together. Give advertisement therefore to such as 
befriend us, that without delay our support be sent, 
as well by money as by men. 

If your eyes be single, ye may not let to succour 
our present necessity, whatsoever danger appear 
thereof to ensue. I must further require you to be 
a suitor to all such as you know to be unfeigned 
favourers, and especially to our brethren of London, 
to have a respect to our necessities. 

The French ships keep the narrow waters here, 
which is to us a great annoyance, and unto them a 
great relief. Provision would be had betimes, which 
we cannot make by reason that all our ships are 
absent, and as we fear stayed, so many as be in 
France. Make ye advertisement as ye think good, 
for I cannot write to any especial for lack of oppor- 
tunity ; for in twenty-four hours I have not four or 
five to natural rest and ease of this wicked carcass. 
Remember my last request for my mother, and say 
to Mr. George that I have need of a good and an 
assured horse, for great watch is laid for my appre- 
hension, and large money promised to any that shall 
kill me ; and yet would I hazard to come unto you, 
if I were assured that I might be permitted to open 
my mouth, to call again to Christ Jesus those 
unthankful children, who, alack ! have appeared 
utterly to have forgotten His loving mercies, which 
sometimes I supposed they had embraced. And this 
part of my care now poured in your bosom, I cease 
further to trouble you, being troubled myself in body 
and in spirit for the troubles that be present and 
appear to grow. God give end to His glory and to 
our comfort. This 23rd of October, 1559, at mid- 



72 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

night. Many things I have to write, which now 
time suffereth not, but after if ye make haste with 
this message, ye shall understand more. ... I 
write with sleeping eyes. 

Mary of Guise's devoted garrison of Frenchmen at Leith, 
scorning the summons to surrender, the Lords of the 
Congregation prepared to take the town by storm, but 
discovered both the fortifications and the men defending 
them considerably stouter than they anticipated. Though 
the main body of the long-delayed reinforcements from 
France had not yet arrived, the advanced guard of a 
thousand veterans, which had landed at Leith under D'Oyssel, 
proved infinitely better soldiers than men who were more 
at home at border raids than at a serious siege against 
disciplined troops. Sir Ralph Sadler and Sir James Croft, 
who kept Cecil fully posted as to the course of events, saw 
plainly that the Scotsmen had no easy task before them. 
" Now the affray is begun, and being thus far entered in 
blood on both parts," they wrote to the anxious secretary 
on October 24, " we think it cannot soon be staunched . . . 
whether they will assault the town of Leith or not we cannot 
tell, but you know the Scots will climb no walls." 1 The 
Lords of the Congregation now turned more anxiously than 
ever to Elizabeth, hoping for the relief without which the 
Queen's Commissioners clearly saw they had little likelihood 
of success. 

SIR RALPH SADLER AND SIR JAMES CROFT TO 
SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 

[Wright's "Queen Elizabeth and her Times."~\ 

Berwick, October 27, 1559. 

Yesternight we received letters in cipher from 
Randolph, with others from the Earl of Arran, alias 
Beaufort, 2 to the Queen's Majesty, to you and to us, 
and also certain other writings which we send you 
here enclosed, praying you that upon consideration 
of the same, we may be directed from thence with 
speed, how we shall answer their desires in such sort 

1 Wright's "Elizabeth and her Times," 1838. 

2 The feigned name which was given to the Earl in his passport. 



PLOTS AND SCANDALS 73 

as to your wisdoms there shall be thought convenient, 
for now you may see great likelihood what this matter 
will grow unto. 

We have in the mean season thought good to put 
them in some hope of such relief as with honour and 
secrecy may be ministered unto them, and also have 
given them such advice as you shall perceive by the 
copy of our letters presently written in cipher to 
Randolph, which you shall receive herewith. But 
surely we think if they be not relieved and supported 
by the Queen's Majesty, their poverty being such as 
they allege, they must of force desist and leave off 
their enterprise to their own confusion. And if by 
her Highness's aid they may prosper and achieve 
the same, yet in the end, as far as we can see, her 
Highness must either manifest herself on that side, 
or else they shall not be able to strive and wrestle 
with the power of France. Wherein we be bold to 
say our poor minds as men which from the bottom 
of our hearts do wish and desire the establishment 
of this island in perpetual unity and concord, the 
like opportunity whereof, that is now offered, we 
think we shall not live to see, if this be pretermitted, 
the consideration whereof we refer to the wisdom 
and deep judgment of those to whom it chiefly 
appertaineth, which can more deeply weigh it, and 
discern and sec further in the same than our poor 
wits can reach. So we end, committing you to God, 
who directeth all to His pleasure. 

Your assured poor friends, 

R. Sadler, 
James Croft. 

All the early honours of war rested with the seasoned 
French troops, who repulsed the first assault with ease, 
and shortly afterwards raided Edinburgh itself during a 
daring sortie one morning while part of the Scottish force 
was vainly searching for the Earl of Bothwell, who had just 
robbed the Laird of Ormiston of funds intended for the 
besiegers. Bothwell was at this date only some twenty- 



74 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

three years old, and though nominally Protestant in his 
religion, now became a staunch supporter of the Queen 
Regent. His capture of the money was doubly serious 
because it had been secretly sent in the following circum- 
stances by the English commissioners to meet the desperate 
needs of the Scottish rebels : 

SIR RALPH SADLER AND SIR JAMES CROFT TO 
SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 

[Wright's "Queen Elizabeth and her Times.'"] 

Berwick, October 31, 1559. 

Yesternight arrived here the Laird of Ormiston, 

with these letters, which we send you here enclosed. 

He was specially dispatched hither for money, and 

declared unto us that unless they might be presently 

helped and relieved with the same, they could not 

keep their power any longer together, but that their 

soldiers, which they had in wages, were ready to 

depart from them, for lack of payment, whereupon 

because we thought it not good utterly to discourage 

them, we have presumed to send them one thousand 

pounds, which we declared unto him, we shifted for 

of our own money, and such as we could borrow of 

our friends for the time, and so we have now written 

unto Randolph, requiring him to declare the same 

to such of the lords there as he thinketh good, and 

to advertise them that we be in good hope to send 

them more very shortly, praying them to keep it 

secret, and to make as few privy to it as is possible, 

whereof likewise we required the said Ormiston — 

to whom also we have given two hundred crowns 

for his own relief, which he took in very thankful 

part, and so we returned him this day with speed to 

Edinburgh with good words, and good hope of more 

relief as soon as may be. Furthermore, like as we 

wrote unto you that we would send this bearer, 

Mr. Drury, to Edinburgh, to the intent we might 

the better understand by him of their doings there, 

so being directed from me, Sir James Croft, to the 

Prior of St. Andrews, he hath been there among 



PLOTS AND SCANDALS 75 

them since Thursday last, and is now returned unto 
us in the company of the said Laird of Ormiston. 
He hath viewed the town of Leith very near, within 
the shot of the arquebuse, and what he judgeth of 
the same, and all the rest that he hath seen and 
heard there he can better and more at length declare 
unto you than we can write. He is honest, wise, 
and secret, and therefore we have thought good to 
dispatch him presently herewith, praying you to 
credit him in that he shall declare unto you on our 
behalf. 

What will be the end of this matter we cannot 
tell, but surely without the Queen's Majesty's aid, 
either by taking open and plain part with them, or 
else secretly to be at charges with them, as her 
Highness hath been for a time, we see not, their 
poverty being such as it is, as this said bearer can 
tell, that they shall be able of themselves to keep 
any power long together, but of force must be fain 
to stay and depart, to their no little danger, and to 
the utter overthrow of the whole intended purpose. 
And what may ensue thereof we refer to be con- 
sidered there by such as can more deeply weigh 
and judge of the same than we can, and for our 
parts shall be ready to do as we shall be commanded. 
And thus we commit you to the tuition of Almighty 
God. 

Your assured poor friends, 

R. Sadler, 
James Croft. 

The Laird of Ormiston, who had an escort of seven men, 
was John Cockburn, a zealous reformer, against whom 
Bothwell was nursing a private feud. The " glorious, rash, 
and hazardous young man," as Throckmorton once called 
him, was only too ready to carry out the Queen Regent's 
instructions to seize him on his return to Edinburgh from 
Berwick. Lying in wait for the Laird near Dumpenter Law 
with twenty-four men, he succeeded in intercepting the 
convoy, and, cutting Ormiston down with a cut across the 



76 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

face, carried him off with the booty to his castle at Crichton. 
In his letter of November 3, in which he announces this 
mishap to Cecil, Randolph adds : 

Immediately after word came to us that Ormiston 
was hurt, and the money lost, the Earl of Arran and 
the Lord James Stuart went with two hundred 
horsemen and one hundred footmen, and two pieces 
of artillery, to the Lord BothwelPs house, trusting 
to have found him there ; howbeit they came too 
late, only by a quarter of an hour. They have, 
notwithstanding, taken his house ; and unless he 
render the money out of hand, this day his house 
will be set afire, and his goods reserved, in recom- 
pense of the money, and he to be taken as an enemy 
to the whole Lords of the Congregation. 1 

Bothwell's reply was to send Arran a challenge to single 
combat " as you please on horse or foot, unto the death," 
before Frenchmen and Scotsmen. Arran replied that he 
would meet him only " whensoever you may recover the 
name of an honest man, which by your cowardly deed you 
have lost," and in no case before Frenchmen, "whom you 
rank with Scots, for there is no Frenchman in this realm 
with whose judgment I will have to do." Bothwell's capture 
not only heartened the Queen Regent in her besieged strong- 
hold ; it also furnished damning evidence of English official 
help in the rebellion. " Tell the Queen what we have dis- 
covered," wrote D'Oyssel to Noailles in London, " although 
I believe she will disavow it ; but if you look her straight in 
the face she can hardly help blushing whatever assurance 
she may possess." 2 Elizabeth, of course, was ready enough 
with her denials, especially in view of Mary of Guise's 
strengthened position, and the possibility of the arrival of 
the main French army, 20,000 strong, under the command 
of her youngest brother Ren6, the Marquis d'Elboeuf. The 
Lords of the Congregation, wrote Sadler and Croft to 
Randolph, "must say that the money was Ormiston's, or 
theirs, or colour the matter otherwise." 3 Elizabeth herself, 

1 Sadler Papers. 

2 Teulet : "Papiers d'£tat.," p. 379. 
8 Scottish Calendar, I., p. 259. 



PLOTS AND SCANDALS 77 

however, had not heard of this regrettable incident when the 
French Ambassador roused her ire during the tournament 
of November 3, at which her favourite Dudley, and Lord 
Hunsdon, held the lists against all comers : 

M. DE NOAILLES TO FRANCIS II. 
[Teulet: " Papiers cT £tat relatifs d Vhistoire cffecosse."] 

London, November 9, 1559. 

Sire, 

Being aware that this Queen was beginning to be 
somewhat alarmed at the preparations which are 
being made in Normandy to send reinforcements to 
Scotland, it seemed to me it was time that I, on 
behalf of your Majesty, should make known to her 
all that you had been pleased to command me in 
your last instructions. On this occasion having 
asked for an audience on the 3rd of this month, she 
granted it to me on the 5th, which was last Sunday 
afternoon — thus giving me an opportunity to see the 
tournament which was then held in her presence by my 
Lords Robert [Dudley] and Hunsdon, the champions 
who held the lists against all comers. Eighteen 
assailants presented themselves, and some of them 
made a brave show. The said Lady, who showed 
much favour to the two champions, had with her, in 
the gallery from which she watched the tournament, 
the Duke of Finland and the Emperor's ambassador, 
besides your hostages and myself, together with a 
number of lords and ladies of the court. On my 
arrival she demanded if I had any news from France, 
complaining that she had learned nothing, not even 
of her ambassador, whom she had commanded to 
come for seven or eight days past, and did not know 
what could be keeping him. I answered that I had 
received letters from your Majesty, written ten or 
twelve days ago, in which I was directed to tell her 
that, in view of the obstinacy and malice with which 
the Scots continued their attacks, you were resolved 
to send help to the Queen Regent in order that she 
might resist them. On which the said Lady said to 



78 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

me rather abruptly that it was very reasonable that 
this provision should be made, but it must not be 
thought very strange if she on her side were also to 
arm herself. She heard, she said, that great prepara- 
tions of men and ships were being made in Normandy, 
and that there did not seem to be any need for so 
much assistance, for she knew that there were in 
Scotland almost as many French as Scots in arms, 
there being scarcely more than six or seven thousand 
of the said Scots altogether. I replied that if they 
had been rightly reckoned they would be found to be 
a hundred of the rebels against one, and these could 
drive out the French. At which the tilting began, 
and the said Lady, not wishing to lose the pleasure 
of watching, said to me that we would speak of 
these matters later when we were more at leisure. 

When the jousts were concluded she dismissed 
with some gracious words both the Duke of Finland 
and the Imperial Ambassador, so that she might 
withdraw and talk with me alone. Having first 
excused herself for not having given me an audience 
sooner because she had been so much occupied, we 
resumed our conversation where we had left it. I 
continued to lay before her your Majesty's commands 
regarding the said preparation, pointing out that 
you knew of so few faithful servants in Scotland that 
it was necessary to send more Frenchmen there, and 
that that ungrateful nation would not even have 
allowed the Queen Regent to remain in Leith, had 
it not been strengthened by earthworks, and by the 
presence of a few French troops. Therefore she 
[Elizabeth] could judge for herself how expedient it 
was that all diligence should be used in setting 
matters right. 

She answered that it was also her custom, and that 
of her kingdom, to arm when her neighbours armed. 
All her coasts were being watched, she declared, in 
order to guard against any attack, repeating again 
what she had heard, that matters were not at such a 
point that it was necessary for France to send so 



PLOTS AND SCANDALS 79 

many men and ships to Scotland and that there were 
many other places loyal to the Queen Regent besides 
Leith, such as Dunbar, and Edinburgh Castle. I 
tried to reply, Sire, very plainly on these points, 
explaining, in the first place, that she was thus doing 
great injury to the peace and friendship between your 
Majesties, and that she could see that you were 
sufficiently harassed now in your own country with- 
out wishing to attack any other. Also that I 
could, on my part, swear to her, in all truth and 
conscience, and call God to witness, that in all the 
negotiations in which it had pleased you to command 
me, I was only aware that you had no greater wish 
than truly and soundly to observe the said friendship 
and treaties of peace. ... At last the said Lady 
admitted that your arming on this occasion was 
reasonable and necessary, instructing me to thank 
you greatly for the information you had been pleased 
to give her, and to beg that you would not think it in 
any way strange if she kept her ships ready and her 
coasts garrisoned, as is the custom in her kingdom. 
She maintained that it would not in any way disturb 
on her part the firm peace and friendship which she 
had sworn to God and to your Majesty. ... In this 
manner, Sire, it being already late, the audience 
came to an end. 

It was an embarrassing position for Elizabeth, and 
extremely difficult to say exactly what her real intentions 
were at this period. As Froude says, deliberately, or in spite 
of herself, she was doing what she was compelled to deny, and 
at the same time, holding out hopes which, if she could help 
it, she never meant to fulfil. Probably the real explanation 
was that she detested Knox as much as she feared a French 
attack through Scotland, and had a deep-rooted and not 
unreasonable objection to all rebels against royal authority. 
She had fondly hoped that the Scots would have ousted the 
Frenchmen without any question of open assistance on her 
side. " Had they not been unskilled in sieges and the art of 
war," wrote Dr. Jewel to Peter Martyr on December 1, 
" they would have effected something long before this time. 



80 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

Slight skirmishes took place on both sides up to the sixth of 
November, after which the Scots retired into winter quarters ; 
whereupon a rumour was spread abroad by the Queen's party 
that the Scots had run away with their spirits broken. But 
they, with their leaders, still maintain their ground, and hold 
councils, and increase their numbers, and levy money, and 
have troops in readiness, should there be any occasion for 
their services." l In point of fact, the Lords of the Congre- 
gation had stored their artillery in Edinburgh Castle on the 
bond of the neutral Lord Erskine to re-deliver it, and retired 
to Linlithgow at midnight on the sixth, vowing that they 
would coin their plate to maintain the Word of God and 
the weal of Scotland. The Queen Regent re-occupied the 
capital the next morning, most of the inhabitants " fleeing 
with bag and baggage, and putting their best stuff in the 
castle for safety." 2 Elizabeth still declined openly to support 
the Scottish cause. The English council was hopelessly 
divided on the subject, though her far-seeing Secretary saw 
that armed intervention was the only way to safety. Elizabeth 
hesitated so long to take the plunge that in a fit of despair 
Cecil at length sent her the following undated letter declining 
to act further in the matter : 

SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
[Wright's "Queen Elizabeth and her Times."] 

It may please your most Excellent Majesty, 

With a sorrowful heart and watery eyes, I your 
poor servant and most loyal subject, an unworthy 
Secretary, beseech your Majesty to pardon this my 
lowly suit, that considering the proceeding in this 
matter for removing of the French out of Scotland 
doth not content your Majesty, and that I cannot 
with my conscience give any contrary advice, I may, 
with your Majesty's favour and clemency, be spared 
to intermeddle therein. And this I am forced to do 
of necessity, for I will never be a minister in any your 
Majesty's service, whereunto your own mind shall 
not be agreeable, for thereunto I am sworn, to be a 

1 Zurich Letters. First Series. 

2 Scottish Calendar, II., p. 262. 



PLOTS AND SCANDALS 81 

minister of your Majesty's determinations and not 
of mine own, or of others, though they be never so 
many. And on the other part, to serve your Majesty 
in anything that myself cannot allow, must needs be 
an unprofitable service, and so untoward, as therein I 
would be loth your Majesty should be deceived. And 
as for any other service, though it were in your 
Majesty's kitchen or garden, from the bottom of my 
heart I am ready without respect of estimation, 
wealth, or ease, to do your Majesty's commandment 
to my life's end. Whereof I wish with all my poor 
sorrowful heart, that your Majesty would make some 
proof, for this I do affirm, that I have not had since 
your Majesty's reign, any one day's joy but in your 
Majesty's honour and weal. 

Meantime the elements which were to turn the scales in 
England's favour on a more momentous occasion later in 
her reign now conspired with Cecil to make Elizabeth change 
her mind. Elbceuf, who had been waiting at Calais for a 
favourable opportunity to convey his troops to Scotland 
without encountering the English fleet, succeeded only in 
meeting disaster in a gale, which wrecked four of his ships 
and drowned between one and two thousand troops off the 
coast of Holland. A second army dispatched for the same 
purpose under Martigues, was wrecked on the Danish coast. 
These, and other reassuring news from France, decided 
Elizabeth at last openly to throw in her lot with the rebels 
of Scotland and remove the French peril thence once and 
for all. "You will see by my letters to his Majesty," wrote 
Quadra to the Duke of Alba, " that what we have feared so 
long has at last come to pass. It is the Queen's act, and I 
pray God that Christendom may not again be set aflame by 
these corrupt and evil appetites." 1 The Queen had other 
weighty matters to deal with in this closing month of the 
year, in addition to the Scottish crisis, and the ceaseless 
negotiations concerning the marriage which she never 
intended to contract. The Catholic bishops having, with one 
exception, declined to swear the new oath, they were deprived 

1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I. 
E.M.S. G 



82 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

of their sees during the summer and autumn. Five were 
now bold enough to send Elizabeth a letter which, had it 
been addressed by Protestants to Mary during the last reign, 
would probably have cost the writers their lives : 

THE DEPRIVED BISHOPS TO QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
[Strype's "Annals of the Reformation."] 

December 4, 1559. 

Most Royal Queen, 

We entreat your gracious Majesty to listen unto us 
of the Catholic clergy within your realm, as well as 
unto others, lest that your gracious Majesty and 
subjects be led astray through the inventions of those 
evil counsellors who are persuading your ladyship to 
embrace schisms and heresies in lieu of the ancient 
Catholic faith, which hath been long since planted 
within this realm by the motherly care of the Church 
of Rome — which your ancestors duly and reverently 
observed and confessed, until by heretical and 
schismatical advisers your father was withdrawn ; 
and after him your brother Prince Edward. After his 
decease, your virtuous sister Queen Mary of happy 
memory succeeded, who being troubled in conscience 
with what her father's and brother's advisers had 
caused them to do, most piously restored the Catholic 
faith by establishing the same again in this realm : 
as also by extinguishing the schisms and heresies 
which at that time began to flame over her territories. 
For which God poured out His wrath upon most of 
the malefactors, and misleaders of the nation. 

We further entreat your Ladyship to consider the 
supremacy of the Church of Rome. And histories yet 
make mention that Athanasius was expelled by her 
and her council in Liberius's time ; the Emperor also 
speaking against him for withstanding the head of 
the church. 

These ancient things we lay before your Majesty, 
hoping God will turn your heart, and, in fine, make 
your Majesty's evil advisers ashamed, and to repent 



PLOTS AND SCANDALS 83 

their heresies. God preseve your Majesty. Which 

be the prayers of 

Nicolas Hethe, James Turberville, 
Edmond Bonner, David Pole. 
Gilbert Bourne, 

Elizabeth was not so angry with the Marian bishops on 
reading this letter as were several of her Council, " who moved 
her" says Strype, " to punish them for their insolency"; 
but she replied : " Let us not follow our sister's example, 
but rather show that our reformation tendeth to peace, and 
not to cruelty"; and she returned the bishops this answer 
before rising from the council : 

QUEEN ELIZABETH TO THE DEPRIVED BISHOPS. 

[Strype's "Annals of the Reformation."] 

Greenwich, December 6, 1559. 
E. R. Sirs, 

As to your entreaty, for us to listen to you, we waive 
it : yet do return you this our answer. Our realm 
and subjects have been long wanderers, walking 
astray, while they were under the tuition of Romish 
pastors, who advised them to own a wolf for their 
head, (in lieu of a careful shepherd,) whose inventions, 
heresies, and schisms be so numerous that the flock 
of Christ hath fed on poisonous shrubs for want of 
wholesome pastures. And whereas you hit us and our 
subjects in the teeth, that the Romish Church first 
planted the Catholic faith within our realms, the 
records and chronicles of our realms testify the con- 
trary ; and your own Romish idolatry maketh you 
liars : witness the ancient monument of Gildas, unto 
which both foreign and domestic have gone in pilgrim- 
age there to offer. This author testifieth Joseph of 
Arimathea to be the first preacher of the Word of God 
within our realms. Long after that, when Augustine 
came from Rome, this our realm had bishops and 
priests therein, as is well known to the wise and 
learned of our realm by woeful experience, how your 
church entered therein by blood — they being martyrs 

G 2 



84 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

for Christ, and put to death, because they denied 
Rome's usurped authority. 

As for our father being withdrawn from the supremacy 
of Rome by schismatical and heretical counsels and 
advisers ; who, we pray, advised him more, or flattered 
him, than you, good Mr. Hethe, when you were 
Bishop of Rochester ? And than you, Mr. Bonner, 
when you were archdeacon ? And you, Mr. Turber- 
ville ? Nay further, who was more an adviser of our 
father than your great Stephen Gardiner, when he 
lived ? Are not ye, then, those schismatics and 
heretics ? If so, suspend your evil censures. Recol- 
lect, was it our sister's conscience made her so averse 
to our father's and brother's actions as to undo what 
they had perfected ? Or was it not you, or such-like 
advisers, that dissuaded her, and stirred her up against 
us and other of the subjects ? 

And whereas you would frighten us, by telling how 
emperors, kings, and princes have owned the Bishop 
of Rome's authority, it was contrary in the beginning. 
For our Saviour Christ paid His tribute unto Caesar, 
as the chief superior ; which shows your Romish 
supremacy is usurped. As touching the excommuni- 
cation of St. Athanasius by Liberius and that council, 
and how the Emperor consented thereunto ; consider 
the heresies that at that time had crept into the 
Church of Rome, and how courageously Athanasius 
withstood them, and how he got the victory. Do ye 
not acknowledge his creed to this day ? Dare any of 
you say — " he is a schismatic ? " Surely ye be not so 
audacious ! Therefore as ye acknowledge his creed, 
it shows he was no schismatic. If Athanasius with- 
stood Rome for her then heresies, then others may 
safely separate themselves from your church and not 
be schismatics. We give you warning, that for the 
future we hear no more of this kind, lest you provoke 
us to execute those penalties enacted for the punish- 
ing of our resisters : which out of our clemency we 
have forborne. 

Although no punishment was meted out to these bishops at 



PLOTS AND SCANDALS 85 

the time — save the mortification of being succeeded by 
" heretics " — most of them were placed under restraint in the 
following year. Bonner, who, as Bishop of London in Mary's 
reign, had earned his unenviable reputation in that Protestant 
stronghold for his remorseless share in the Smithfield burn- 
ings, was carried to the Marshalsea, while Hethe, late Arch- 
bishop of York, Bourne, late Bishop of Bath and Wells, and 
Turberville, late Bishop of Exeter, were all imprisoned in the 
Tower. None of the deprived bishops, however, was ever sent 
to the block, and not for years was anyone in Elizabeth's reign 
executed for religion alone. Less than a fortnight after she 
had written the foregoing letter — on December 21, 1559, to 
be exact — London witnessed the consecration of Bonner's 
successor, Edmund Grindal, by the new Archbishop of 
Canterbury, Matthew Parker, whose own consecration had 
taken place three days previously. Thus this eventful year 
closed with the Queen fully committed to the religious com- 
promise now known as the Elizabethan Settlement, as well 
as — though not yet so openly — to armed intervention on 
behalf of Scotland's rebels. 



CHAPTER III 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 

Elizabeth's Intervention in Scotland — Mary of Guise Recovers her 
Capital — A Forged Letter — Elizabeth's Terms — The " disordered 
Irishry" — Quadra's fears — Dudley "ruining the country" — 
The Treaty of Berwick — How Winter arrived in the Firth of 
Forth — French Designs against England — Elizabeth's Proclama- 
tion — The Tumult of Amboise — Philip's Need of Money — 
Glajon's Mission— His Treachery — The French Ambassador's 
Protest — Elizabeth's Angry Retort — The Siege of Leith — Mary 
of Guise Takes Refuge in Edinburgh Castle — Her Heroism — 
Mary Stuart's Grief — The Disastrous Assault upon Leith, 
May 7th, 1560 — Elizabeth Determined to Wipe out the 
Disgrace — Death of the Queen Regent of Scotland — Treaty of 
Edinburgh — Mary Stuart and Francis II. repudiate it. 

In throwing down the gauntlet to France so soon after her 
accession Elizabeth was again following in her father's foot- 
steps, for it was in the early years of his reign that Henry for 
the first time fought England's ancient enemy, at that time 
allied to Scotland against the Holy League. Then England 
was left in the lurch by her allies, Ferdinand and Maximilian. 
Now she dared to stand alone — to the profound anxiety of 
Philip II., who was fearful of the consequences. " One of 
the chief personages of this Court, who is most intimate with 
his Majesty," wrote the Venetian Ambassador at Toledo in 
January, " when discussing the subject with me, said he 
strongly suspected that it will at length cause the renewal of 
the war between his Majesty and France, as, for the interests 
of the States of Flanders, King Philip could by no means 
tolerate the occupation of England by the French." 1 Eliza- 
beth, however, still strove to convince the world in general 
and Francis II. in particular that she had no desire to break 
the peace with France ; that her naval and military prepara- 
tions were purely defensive, and that she had no intention of 
carrying them farther than Scotland. " In the absence of 

1 Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII., p. 149. 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 87 

their Sovereign Queen," Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was 
instructed to say to "our good brother the French King," 
on his return to Paris at the beginning of 1560, "we would 
take the protection of that realm into our hands, to this only 
end, that it be not conquered. That hitherto we have for- 
borne to intermeddle, and so would gladly continue, without 
any regard to their doings, were it not that upon considera- 
tion of the injurious attempts, as have been already shown in 
France divers ways against us, and the hostility prepared 
thereupon, we find no small danger ensuing to our realm if 
the realm of Scotland should be conquered." 1 

Meantime Mary of Guise was hoping against hope for 
the arrival of her brother, the Marquis d'Elbceuf, who was 
expected not only with an army to relieve her and punish her 
adversaries, but also with the Royal Commission from her 
daughter and son-in-law appointing him Regent in her stead, 
in order that she might return to her beloved France, " to 
obtain rest and relaxation for awhile from the burden and 
vexation she has endured." 2 This sorely-needed relief, how- 
ever, she was never destined to enjoy, though her health 
revived surprisingly after her recovery of Edinburgh. The 
French troops strengthened her position by occupying Stir- 
ling, and she did her best to undermine the position of the Duke 
of Chatelherault by a forged letter to Francis II., offering in 
humiliating terms to make his complete surrender. The 
letter is printed as genuine by Miss Strickland : 

THE DUKE OF CHATELHERAULT TO FRANCIS II. 

[Strickland's " Lives of the Queens of Scotland.'''] 

Glasgow, January 25, 1560. 
Sire, 

The pledge which it has pleased the Queen Regent 
to give me of your goodness and clemency, has 
emboldened me to write this very humble entreaty 
for you to receive me and mine into your grace, and 
that you will forget and forgive all past offences, 
especially some matters which I make my particular 
request to you. I herewith place my blanc scelU 

1 Hatfield MSS., Part L, p. 167. 

2 Labanoff, Second Supplement, Vol. VII., pp, 282 — 3. 



88 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

[carte blanche, with his seal attached] in your hands, 
for an assurance of my fidelity to you and the Queen 
my sovereign, and supplicate you to accept the same ; 
and after I have your reply, if you require me to do 
so, I will send my children to France. 

The object of this forged letter was not only to discredit 
the Duke, but also to warn Elizabeth as to the amount of 
faith which she could place in the rebels whom she was pro- 
posing to help. So far as the Duke was concerned, the ruse 
for a time succeeded. The letter was shown to Elizabeth by 
the French Ambassador, and it was long before anyone would 
believe the Duke when he denied the authenticity of the 
document. His weakness as Regent before abdicating in 
favour of the Queen Dowager in 1554 left people too prone 
to accept the letter as genuine. The truth was only dis- 
covered through a later letter from the Queen Regent, 
intercepted on its way to the Cardinal of Lorraine, in which 
she acknowledged the trick, and complained that the French 
Ambassador had not made the most of it. 1 Elizabeth, how- 
ever, was now firmly committed to her course. The Duke of 
Norfolk had already been despatched to the Border, where 
an army was to take the field under Lord Grey, Sir Ralph 
Sadler being instructed to assist in the council. William 
Winter, Master of the Ordnance, was sent to the Firth of 
Forth with the fleet of fourteen ships which proved the chief 
deciding factor in the situation, though delayed by the storms 
which sent so many of the French ships to destruction. 
His orders were to provoke a quarrel if he did not find 
one ; to allow no French vessel whatever to enter the Firth ; 
and if challenged to declare that he did all this on his own 
responsibility. He might be hanged as a pirate, but on no 
account was he to incriminate Elizabeth. The rebel leaders, 
well posted in his dispatch, looked anxiously for his coming 
every day. The great hope of the Scottish lords, as Norfolk 
wrote to the Council on January 20, " lies in the arrival of 
our ships, the sight of which in the Forth would double their 
courage, and cause a great number to rise and take part with 
tb?m who now sit still." 2 They were suspicious of the Eng- 

1 Foreign Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. II., p. 481. 

2 Hatfield MSS., Part I., pp. 171— 2. 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 89 

lish army, though badly needing its help. " I think it not 
expedient," wrote Norfolk to Cecil four days later, " that we 
should seem to go about to occupy any part of Scotland, lest 
the Scots might hereby take occasion to mislike and fear our 
conquest, as now they do the French, whereby indeed, we 
might the rather cause our friends to become our enemies." 1 
At the same time he realised perfectly well that until the 
Scots had plain proof of England's open aid the waverers 
would never take side against the French, and presently 
announced that he had arranged a conference with Lord 
James Stuart, half-brother of Mary Stuart, and future Earl of 
Murray, the Master of Maxwell, afterwards Baron Herries, 
partisan of Mary Stuart, the third Baron Ruthven, and 
Henry Balnaves, the Scottish reformer, who had at one time 
acted as Secretary of State to the Regent Arran. Here is 
Queen Elizabeth's reply : 

QUEEN ELIZABETH TO THE DUKE OF NORFOLK. 
[Haynes' " Burghley State Papers."] 

February 15, 1560. 

Right truly and right entirely beloved cousin. 

We perceive by your letters dated the 8th ot 
February, that you have assigned a meeting and 
conference with the Lord James, the Master of 
Maxwell, the Lord Ruthven, and Mr. Balnaves, the 
25th of this month, with whom how you shall proceed 
you do desire to be fully instructed, as a matter of 
such importance doth appertain. 

In this matter we rest still of the same mind as we 
did at your departure home ; and, therefore, although 
we might refer you to your former instructions given 
to you in December, yet by manner of repetition we 
let you understand that it remaineth very evident to 
us how great and inevitable a danger it should be to 
this our realm if the French were permitted to subdue 
the Kingdom of Scotland, either by force or practice. 
And, therefore, except it might appear to you, by 
conference, either with such wise and expert men as 
ye shall judge meet to take advice of, or with the 

1 Haynes' Burghley State Papers. 



go ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

Lords of Scotland, that the nobility and part of 
Scotland themselves shall be able to expel the force 
of France that is presently there, or otherwise be able 
to preserve the kingdom from subduing and sub- 
version, our former intent must needs continue to aid 
the part of Scotland in the clear expulsion of the 
French ; whereby our Kingdom may be more free 
from the invasion of France ; and if it shall appear to 
you otherwise, then we would be thereof with speed 
advertised. And in what manner and when this aid 
shall be given, if so it shall be seen necessary, shall be 
best considered upon conference with the said Lords 
of Scotland at your day appointed ; with whom our 
pleasure is you should in this manner treat. First to 
make the matter very strange to them that in so long 
a time they have not, being in number many more 
than the French, expelled the French ; next that 
the rest of the nobility of Scotland, and especially 
such as be in the Marches and Lothian, have not, in 
this cause of the liberty of their country, taken a plain 
part with them against the French, which if they had 
as it seemeth, that matter had not thus long been 
unfinished. And, after this declared, and answered, 
(as we think they will answer that with the lack of 
our aid they can neither expel the French nor yet 
cause the neutrals to take a plain part), we think 
meet you proceed with them to consider which is the 
best, the readiest and most likely way to expel the 
French, and what power the same shall require of 
their part, and what power of ours ; in what time 
and in what manner the same may be best done : 
and whether it must be done by a short or long 
siege ; or by assault, or otherwise, and with 
what charges by estimation the same may be 
done. And for all other particular things of impor- 
tance, as for provision of victual, for carriage of 
ordnance and munition, for meat, for the horses, and 
for such like, we refer to be considered by you, and 
such as be expert in those matters. In the considera- 
tion whereof you shall have regard first that time be 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 91 

not spent and deferred to the increase of our charge 
without any service ; next that to the doing hereof, our 
charge and numbers be not greater than shall seem 
requisite for the effectual exploit, and for the surety of 
them which shall do it. In this part you shall also 
confer with them how they shall be able to keep their 
country free from a new invasion of the French, if by 
God's goodness they shall be delivered ; and to inform 
you how and in what manner they will and may do 
the same ; so as you may judge whether the same be 
probable or not. For you may inform them that the 
charge were intolerable for us to maintain a continual 
army by sea in those northern parts for that purpose ; 
although they shall be well assured we mean not to 
neglect their defence. And herein may you do well 
to show them your advice how they shall best proceed 
to the preservation of their country. 

Ye shall also let them understand that it is a thing 
most evident that the French will enter into an open 
hostility with us and our realm upon this our aid 
given them ; and therefore it shall be necessary, before 
we enter into this evident danger, to understand what 
friendship we may certainly hope for of them towards 
the impeaching of the French, in case they shall 
invade us and our countries, as most likely it is they 
will. In which point, if you see convenient, you may 
by yourself, or cause some other, propound these two 
ways to be the best means — either to have indeed an 
aid of their men and ships by sea or land to with- 
stand the FYench if they shall attempt any invasion in 
any part of the north of this our realm, or else so to 
establish a concord betwixt both these realms and 
especially upon these frontiers, as the one might live 
in a surety of the other without jealousy or doubt; by 
which means we for our part might better employ the 
charges now sustained in the guard of our frontiers 
against the French, and they also. 

Besides this another means may be devised by 
means of Scotland and especially by the Earl of 
Argyll — that the north part of Ireland might be 



92 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

reduced to a perfect obedience of England ; and so 
the force which we have there occupied to subdue 
those disordered people, might be better employed to 
the defence of the realm against the French, which 
will now prove a common enemy to both. This 
matter as indeed it will be very beneficial to our realm 
in Ireland, so have we no doubt but the Earl of Argyll 
will be ready to do his best herein, having already 
given a signification of his good will and purpose 
thereunto. . . . 

The efforts to subdue her " disordered Irishry " lasted 
throughout her long reign. At this period they were turning 
to Philip II. and the Pope for succour, and Quadra had tried 
in vain to persuade his sovereign to make use of such ready 
allies for the recovery of his lost influence in England. At the 
beginning of the year the Earl of Sussex, who was elevated by 
Elizabeth from the rank of Lord Deputy which he had held 
under Mary, to that of Lord-Lieutenant, called the Irish 
Parliament to destroy the Catholic religion and substitute the 
English ecclesiastical settlement. " The Catholic religion 
has been suppressed in Ireland " wrote Quadra to Feria on 
February n, " although not without great opposition. I 
cannot write about this as I should like, as I am so troubled, 
and, perhaps, it would make your Lordship more troubled 
still, if I were to tell you what I suspect about it. Suffice 
to say that if we are content to let God's cause go by the 
board it will not take much to drag us down with it. The 
Queen rides out every day into the country on a Neapolitan 
courser or a jennet to exercise for this war, seated on one of 
the saddles they use here. She makes a brave show and 
bears herself gallantly. In short the people here are full of 
warfare and armaments." x The Bishop saw plainly 
enough that the time for mere words had passed if Spain 
was to save England for Catholicism, and stop the threatened 
rupture with France, which meant, as he foresaw, the 
triumph of the Reformation in Scotland, as well as in 
England, and the consequent impetus to heresy throughout 
Europe. 

1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I. 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 93 

BISHOP QUADRA TO COUNT DE FERIA. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

March 7, 1560. 

. . . The coming of the personages to be sent by 
His Majesty hither and to France will do more harm 
than good if they are only coming to talk, as the 
Catholics expect much more than that, but in any case 
they will be too late, as the good or ill will be done 
before they arrive, the army having to leave here 
within a fortnight to attack the French. The Queen 
will have to take the matter up more warmly than she 
thought, as Randolph tells me the rebel forces are 
very few, and the Scots are making no move as she 
expected. She is in danger and much alarmed, and 
this is the time to do what ought to be done, but if 
we are to be always on the defensive, and to continue 
to palliate such things, I can only say patience ! 
although I well know we shall never have such an 
opportunity again. All are with us, and the very 
heretics are sick of it. I do not presume to speak 
openly of the matter in this spirit, as I am not a 
turbulent or boasting person, and do not want to 
appear so. Lord Robert has sent Sidney to speak to 
me, and I have spoken plainly to him, and have even 
let the Queen see how pained I am. . . . He (Lord 
Robert) is the worst and most procrastinating young 
man I ever saw in my life, and not at all courageous 
or spirited. I have brought all the artillery I can to 
bear upon him, and, by my faith ! if it were not for 
some fear of our own house I would soon give the 
historians something to talk about. Not a man in 
England but cries out at the top of his voice that 
this fellow is ruining the country with his vanity. 

The Flemish envoy sent on the mission mentioned by 
Quadra — chiefly as a sort of forlorn hope to Elizabeth to 
settle the Scottish crisis — received the following letter from 
Philip before sailing, full instructions having already been 
given to him by the Duchess of Parma : 



94 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

PHILIP II. TO M. DE GLAJON. 
[Teulet: " Papiers d'£tat relatifs a I'histoire d'licosse."] 

March, 1560. 

Monsieur de Glajon, 

I have no doubt that you will have heard of the 
matters which have passed between the King of 
France and the Queen of England on account of the 
soldiers whom the said Lord King sent into Scotland 
on the pretext of chastising his rebellious subjects, the 
said Lady Queen jealously regarding them as being 
intended for some other purpose. And, inasmuch as 
it is a far reaching affair, and one which my good 
subjects of the Low Countries may resent, I have 
considered it would be well for me to intercede, and 
set matters right in good time. I am therefore send- 
ing you to the Queen of England, the good zeal and 
experience which I have known in you having made 
me confident, not only that you will take up the 
charge, but also that you will know very well how to 
fulfil it. 

The Flemish envoy fared no better than the Spanish 
Ambassador. " My own belief," wrote De Glajon to the 
Duchess of Parma, " is that she will endeavour to keep 
us temporising with words while she works her will." * The 
arrival of Winter's fleet in the Firth had already clinched 
matters with the wavering Scots, and on February 27 their 
leaders and the Duke of Norfolk concluded the Treaty of 
Berwick " for the defence of the ancient rights and liberty of 
their country." By this treaty Elizabeth bound herself to 
help the Scots to expel the French and not to retain any 
of the places which she might capture from them. The 
Scottish lords on their side were pledged to help Elizabeth 
in the event of any French invasion of English territory, and 
to decline to enter into any closer union with France than 
existed previously to Mary Stuart's marriage. Argyll also 
undertook to assist Elizabeth in the subjection of Northern 
Ireland. The story of the events following the arrival of 

1 Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 145. 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 95 

Winter's fleet is told in Quadra's next letter, as well as in 
Winter's own account, describing the way in which he had 
contrived to carry out his mistress's Machiavellian instruc- 
tions. This is Winter's account to Norfolk, in relating 
how the Queen Regent had sent a herald aboard to demand 
the reason of his visit and whether he came as an enemy : 

I said I was sent by the Queen my mistress to 
conduct divers ships with ordnance, provision, etc. to 
her fort of Berwick ; and there being no sure anchor- 
age there, I brought the fleet hither, thinking there 
was peace and expecting friendly entertainment ; 
but, coming into Leith Roads, the French forts at 
Inchkeith, Leith and Burntisland shot at me many 
cruel shot of cannon and culverin, and thereon, hear- 
ing their great cruelty to the Congregation of Scotland, 
and the captivity it is like to fall into, I determined to 
give them all the aid I might against the wicked 
practice of the French ; and that hereof the Queen's 
Highness my mistress was nothing privy." 1 

It may be doubted, as Froude says, whether falsehood so 
transparent was of real service to Elizabeth. " Such a mask 
is easy to strip off," as the Queen Regent wrote to Noailles. 
But it must be remembered that Elizabeth herself was 
surrounded by diplomacy which was equally treacherous. 
She was playing an utterly unscrupulous game in an age in 
which the end was everywhere supposed to justify the 
means. Her suspicions against the French were by no 
means groundless. The Spanish ambassadors were them- 
selves convinced, as they told the Duchess of Parma, that 
though the French Ambassador assured them that the plans 
which Henry II. had conceived for the invasion of Elizabeth's 
kingdom had been abandoned, the real object of France at 
the moment was to separate England from Scotland in order to 
make this conquest of her ancient enemy the easier when 
the time came. 3 Quadra kept the Duchess well-informed of 
the march of events as far as he could understand them : 

1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. L, p. 301. 

2 Teulet: "Papiers d'£tat," Vol. I., p. 527. 



96 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

BISHOP QUADRA TO THE DUCHESS OF PARMA. 
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, March 7, 1560. 

. . . The other day the Queen's ships which went 
to Scotland entered the Firth and arrived off Leith 
fort, whence the French opened fire upon them and 
damaged two of the ships. The English shot at them 
and placed their artillery on a small island near the 
fort, but they could do no damage as they were too far 
off. In the meanwhile three French ships came up 
with munitions and stores, and the English went at 
them, and drove them ashore on the land held by the 
rebels, who sacked them, and they were afterwards 
taken by the English ships, which still remain at the 
same place, and provide themselves with what they 
require from the Scots by purchase, having refused 
to accept supplies without payment. The Queen 
Regent sent a trumpeter from Edinburgh to ask the 
English whether they came as friends or foes, and if 
they had been sent by the Queen of England and 
meant to help the rebels. The Queen says that 
Winter, the vice-admiral, answered that they had 
come there as friends, but had found enemies, and 
that the Queen of England having sent them to 
Berwick, the weather had forced them to the place 
where they were, and that they did not mean to help 
the rebels, only in so far as they were unjustly treated 
by the Queen Regent. The Queen Regent sent to 
ask the same questions of the Duke of Norfolk who 
was at Newcastle, and who answered that he came to 
the frontier only to protect the realm of England. 

Five or six days ago both the French ambassadors, 
the old one and the one that has just arrived, went 
together to the Queen and showed her a letter from 
the Queen Regent of Scotland in which, as this Queen 
avers, there were certain injurious expressions about 
her. The rest of the letter contained an account of 
what had passed with the ships, differing, however, 
from the English account in saying that the vessels 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 97 

had arrived there in perfectly fine weather in no need 
or danger, and they had replied to the trumpeter to 
the effect that it was true they had come to help the 
Congregation as persons who were being oppressed 
and aggrieved by the French. After the ambassadors 
had shown this letter, they said the Queen Regent 
would send hither a herald to ask on what terms this 
Queen wished to be with her, as friend or foe, and on 
the Ambassador Noailles leaving, he asked her to 
decide on this point, as he wished to send word to his 
master. She answered them very confusedly, and at 
last said she would send her decision. The next day 
she sent Cecil and Mason to them to say that she 
would be friendly or otherwise with the French accord- 
ing as they gave her cause to be. They then wanted 
to know whether the cause was already given, or 
whether it was only feared it might be given in the 
future. The answer was that they could best judge of 
that by their own actions and intentions. I think they 
have discussed here all the various grievances and 
complaints that both parties have against each 
other. 

So far as concerns the arms and title assumed by 
the King of France, there would probably be no great 
difficulty in the French abandoning them, but as 
regards withdrawing their troops from Scotland and 
leaving the country to the natives, which is the point 
upon which all turns, they say they will never consent 
to it. The English on the other hand set forth that 
without this they shall never be safe, and the people 
whom the French call rebels the English regard as 
true and faithful subjects of their Queen, as they only 
seek to free their country from the tyranny of the 
French. In short they could not agree, and the 
ambassador sent a courier to France to be followed 
by the Ambassador Noailles. They feel sure that the 
Marquis of Elboeuf, who will leave Dieppe this week 
with ten ships, will be attacked by the English, and I 
believe they are not mistaken, as the Queen first, and 
Cecil afterwards, told me about it, and said that they 

e.m.s. H 



98 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

will use every effort to turn the French out of Scot- 
land, and to prevent help reaching them, especially 
victuals, of which they are certainly in sore need. I 
do not see how she can deal with the French in 
any other way, or satisfy the Scots, whom she has 
promised not to come to terms, unless they do so first. 

Before the end of March Grey's army of 6,000 foot and 
2,000 horse had crossed the frontier to join forces with 
the Scots in the siege of Leith, whither the French troops 
had again retreated on Winter's arrival. The following Pro. 
clamation was issued by Elizabeth explaining the aims and 
limitations of her expedition, as well as the special grievances 
of England against the House of Guise. It was printed in 
French for the world at large, as well as in English : x 

PROCLAMATION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
[Venetian Calendar, Vol. VTL] 

Although it is evident and notorious, not only to 
the Queen's subjects but also to many other foreign 
nations in all parts of Christendom, that great 
occasions have of late been given and continued by 
the French to fear an attack from them on this 
kingdom, principally by way of Scotland, and that 
her Majesty in like manner should prepare with all 
speed the necessary forces to resist them by the same 
way of Scotland, the Queen nevertheless, considering 
the great diversity of opinions which might arise 
among people in general about this affair, has willed 
briefly and openly to declare and publish her determi- 
nation and its just causes to the world. 

In the first place the Queen of her gentle and 
gracious nature has been pleased to believe that the 
title to this kingdom injuriously pretended in so 
many ways by the Queen of Scotland, has not 
proceeded otherwise than from the ambitious desire 
of the principal members of the House of Guise, who 

1 The English Proclamation is printed in the Foreign Calendar 

for 1559 — 60 (pp. 472 and 473). The Venetian translation, which 

differs from the English text, was probably made from the French 
version. 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 99 

had lately made themselves masters of the govern- 
ment of the Crown of France ; nor can her Majesty 
believe that either the King, who by reason of his 
youth, is incapable of such an enterprise, or the 
Queen of Scots, who is likewise very young, or the 
princes of the blood royal and other persons of high 
estate in France, to whom the government of that 
kingdom appertained heretofore, and ought to apper- 
tain during the King's infancy, have of themselves 
imagined and deliberated an enterprise so unjust, 
unreasonable, and perilous, as any person of good 
and indifferent judgment can judge this to be. And 
the said House of Guise, considering that for their 
private gain there was no other way to obtain it than 
by increasing the greatness and exaltation of their 
niece the Queen of Scotland, under pretence of whom 
they now meddle with the government of the kingdom 
of France, have thus injuriously and insolently set 
forth, and even in time of peace, in public places, 
have continued to appropriate the arms and titles of 
these realms of England and Ireland in the name of 
their niece, besides doing many infamous acts, as 
affirmed by many persons, without the knowledge of 
the princes of the blood royal and other great 
personages and sage councillors, long experienced in 
the affairs of that kingdom. To pursue the execution 
of this their unjust and ambitious resolve, they have 
availed themselves of the authority of the King and 
of the Queen, their niece, it being unnatural that she 
should seek to remove the Crown of Scotland from the 
hands of the native Scots ; and so partly through the 
forces sent by them already under the aforesaid 
pretence, and partly [through the reinforcements] 
which are to be sent, they have determined to 
continue the attack on this kingdom of England, of 
which although to their great dishonour they have 
made their niece usurp the title, they still know that 
in no other way than through Scotland would they 
ever be able to accomplish the evident mischief they 
desire. 

h 2 



ioo ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

Her Majesty, therefore, having experienced in 
many calamities the singular goodness of God, and 
knowing the good right of her cause, and the natural 
obedience and love of her faithful subjects, and that 
these insolent enterprises proceed solely from the 
sinister comportment of the Guise family during the 
infancy of the King and Queen, without obtaining in 
any way the consent of the princes of the blood and 
of other great lords and states of France ; and the 
Queen of her own nature and inclination having no 
other greater desire than to continue and preserve the 
peace with all Christian princes (most especially at 
this time of the occurrence of such unusual and 
difficult operations), especially with France and 
Scotland and all their subjects ; makes known to all 
persons in general that although she has been com- 
pelled at her great cost to assemble forces both by sea 
and land for the security of her kingdom, having been 
challenged in this manner by words and by a false 
title, being moreover provoked by the vicinity of the 
French soldiers, and by the threats of their being 
reinforced from day to day, nevertheless she does not 
intend on this account to wage war, or to do any act 
of cruelty, but seeks and endeavours solely, having 
many times openly and amicably requested the 
Cardinal of Lorraine and his brother, and also 
through their means the King of France, that these 
titles and too insolent pretensions should be with- 
drawn and revoked, and that they should agree with 
the people of Scotland on a suitable and natural form 
of government, not departing from the due obedience 
to their Sovereign, as they themselves offer, so that 
they may no longer have to fear oppression and 
conquest ; and consequently that the French soldiers 
in Scotland should be recalled, making compensation 
for their former attacks on this kingdom, it being too 
perilous to have them for so long a period so near 
England. That their recall may proceed more 
speedily, it has been offered to give them safe 
conduct, both by water and by land, for their 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 101 

departure with all the favour and security that they 
could desire, and that according to the diminution of 
their forces those of the Queen by land and sea 
should be simultaneously reduced. Thus all cause 
for displeasure would remain buried in oblivion, and 
a firm and sincere peace be established. But to 
these demands, so conformable to equity, reason, and 
honour, though frequently made by her Majesty, she 
can by no means obtain a sufficient reply, although 
much time has been employed to her very great cost, 
and the evident ruin of the peace and friendship. 
Finally, her Majesty makes known to all that she 
continues and will continue to remain at peace with 
the realms of France and Scotland so long as no 
manifest invasion be made upon her dominions or 
people, and that she will procure by all good means 
that a union and good agreement may take place in 
Scotland, and that the French soldiers who are 
dissatisfied with it, may depart without harm and in 
security ; but if they refuse to do so after all these 
good means have been employed, and after so many 
delays made on the part of France, they must 
necessarily then be made to retreat, without using 
any further violence whatever against persons either 
of France or of Scotland. 

Her Majesty therefore commands and strictly 
enjoins all her subjects, of whatever condition they 
may be, to show all favour and friendship to all the 
subjects of the King, and to let them trade in all 
sorts of merchandise, as has been customary in the 
time of the best peace, and ought to be allowed, 
unless, however, the Queen's subjects be hostilely 
compelled to defend themselves or their country ; and 
all her Majesty's subjects will in their discourse 
speak well and decorously of France and the French 
nation, and notwithstanding all these great injuries 
done lately to the Crown of England as aforesaid, the 
said subjects will not judge otherwise than is believed 
and judged by the Queen in person from her good 
inclination. Nor will they make other preparations 



102 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

of war than such as may serve for defence against 
such injuries and enterprises as shall be made and 
directed against this kingdom (contrary to what her 
Majesty desires and expects) at the instigation of the 
said House of Guise, who now have in their hands the 
entire government of the King and Queen, until it be 
seen whether the said kingdom and people of France 
intend any longer to invade this country, and also 
whether her Majesty's present good opinion be not 
well received. Although this would greatly disturb 
and displease the Queen, by reason of the hindrance 
and delay of the general peace of all Christendom, 
which she declares above all things, it is not yet to be 
doubted but that the Almighty will aid and assist the 
forces of this realm to guard it against all dangers, 
and honourably to revenge the injuries done, as the 
case requires. 

For the better understanding of all persons her 
Majesty has willed this to be expressly proclaimed in 
English and French, as although she had made a 
particular demonstration of the same to the King ol 
France, and to the said Lords of Guise, as also to 
the Queen Dowager of Scotland, and to all the 
French Ambassadors in these parts, she has as yet 
been unable to obtain a sufficient reply, and her 
Majesty desires that it may not be hidden from them 
lest they be induced to believe what is contrary to the 
truth. 

Given at Westminster on the 24th of March, in the 
second year of her reign. 

More than mere coincidence is probably needed to account 
for the fact that this Proclamation was issued in French as 
well as English at the time of the Tumult of Amboise — " the 
first scud before a storm which," in the words of Froude, 
" was about to deluge France with blood," and now left her 
impotent at the most critical moment in the affairs 01 
Scotland. " They know not where to turn," wrote Sir 
Nicholas Throckmorton from Paris in one of his letters at 
this period to Cecil. " He that all trust to-day, to-morrow 
is least trusted. You can imagine your advantage. Spend 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 103 

your money now, and never in England was money better 
spent than this will be. Use the time while you have it." l 
The Guises suspected Elizabeth — probably not without some 
foundation — of knowing more than appeared on the surface 
of the inner history of that religious outbreak, which, like the 
Proclamation just printed, was aimed first of all at the heads 
of the House of Guise. " This has been the greatest con- 
spiracy of which there has been any record, for there was 
knowledge of it in England, Scotland, Germany and almost 
all over Christendom." These were the words of the French 
Ambassador to the Spanish Court in describing the Tumult 
of Amboise to the Venetian Ambassador, when he maintained 
that Elizabeth was at the root of the whole trouble : 2 

Thus did I hear this event narrated by the French 
Ambassador, who in all his communications endea- 
vours to represent the Queen of England as of a very 
restless mind, and that by means of religion she 
attempted to harass foreign States ; accusing her, 
most especially to King Philip, of having been the 
principal cause of the disturbances in Scotland by 
constantly negotiating with the insurgents, and 
through the encouragement which she afforded them 
not only by counsel and promises but with troops 
and considerable forces, which she keeps near Scot- 
land with the design of at length making herself 
mistress of that kingdom if she can. The Ambassador 
remarked to his Majesty how dangerous this mode of 
proceeding might be not only to France, but also to 
him, as he holds the Low Countries, which are very 
much corrupted with all these new heresies. By this 
office he so exasperated the King against Queen 
Elizabeth that, as the Ambassador himself told me, 
his Majesty assured him that unless she ceased to 
act thus, he would wage war upon her. 8 

If that was exactly what the Guises hoped Philip 
would do they were destined to be disappointed. Philip 
was no more able to wage war outside his own kingdom at 

1 Froude. 

2 Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII., pp. 171 — 2. 
s Ibid., p. 173. 



io 4 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

this time than was the King of France, having returned to 
Spain not only full of anxiety at the growth of heresy he had 
left behind in the Netherlands, but with something very like 
bankruptcy staring him in the face. "The King since his 
arrival in Spain," wrote the Venetian Ambassador at Toledo, 
" is in greai want of money, because in Flanders the 
pecuniary supply which was made for the war served also for 
the expenses of his Majesty's household, whereas here the 
revenues are mortgaged for a long period, and the debts are 
very considerable." l So that all his talk of waging war on 
France's behalf was mere bluster, though M. de Glajon did 
not hesitate on his arrival in England to threaten Elizabeth 
with a Franco-Spanish alliance if she persisted in her Scot- 
tish campaign. 2 In his first interview he coolly suggested 
that she should recall her army from Scotland, whereupon 
Elizabeth, as Glajon told his master in his long-winded 
account of this discussion, " answered with some anger that 
it was too late to withdraw her troops, or to talk about 
reconciliation except sword in hand." As to helping the 
Scottish rebels, as the Spanish Sovereign had called them, 
she did not consider these people as such — otherwise, she 
declared, she would have to punish them herself : 

She thought these people were only defending their 
Queen, and the rights and liberties of their country, 
and by helping them she considered she was assuring 
her crown and dignity. I pointed out to her in reply 
that your Majesty considered them as rebels, as they 
had risen against their sovereign, and had changed 
the religion, which could not be excused in any way. 
As regards the state of her affairs and her difficulties 
and expenses she replied that she hoped our Lord, 
whom she called upon to witness her sincerity in this 
matter, and Who had upheld her in worse perplexities 
and reverses, would sustain her in the future, and she 
put her whole trust in Him. 

Finally, respecting the expedient proposed by your 
Majesty to send your own people to Scotland for her 
security, she answered that she thought no other 

1 Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII., p. 142. 

2 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., April 7. 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 105 

forces should be sent to Scotland except by the King 
of France, although those he had there at present 
should be withdrawn, leaving the country at peace, 
and she asked me whether the King of France was 
willing that your Majesty should send your troops 
and subjects to Scotland. Thinking that she asked 
this question with no good motive or desire to accede 
to the proposal, but rather from curiosity, I answered 
that at present that was not the question, but only to 
obtain her views on the matter. We were not able, 
however, to get her to declare herself, although she 
showed no surprise. She began to tire of the long 
interview, which had lasted about an hour and a half, 
and on seeing this we asked her to be pleased to appoint 
another time to meet us and discuss the matter in 
the presence of her Council, and give us her final 
decision in order to advise your Majesty. She fixed 
to-morrow. 1 

Elizabeth did not attend the meeting on the morrow as 
promised, pleading indisposition, but the Council was no more 
to be frightened by Spanish threats than was Elizabeth her- 
self. Bishop Quadra was probably more disappointed with 
this result than was the Flemish Ambassador, who had no love 
for the French, and warned the Spaniard in secret " that the 
Low Countries would in no wise endure a quarrel with 
England." The depth of diplomatic duplicity at this period 
is fully revealed in Cecil's entry in his diary on the subject : 

" M. de Glajon came and joined with the Bishop of Aquila 
to move a revocation of the army out of Scotland, but 
Glajon privately to my Lord Admiral and me, the Secretary, 
counselled us to the contrary." 

Quadra, also, was by no means unsuspicious of French 
designs, and though he distrusted England more, joined with 
the Flemish Ambassador in hinting to the Duchess of Parma 
that " all the actions and proceedings of the French are 
directed to bring us into hatred and distrust with the Eng- 
lish, in order to have the course clear for themselves, and 
then arrange together without our intervention. 2 Each of 

1 Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I., pp. 142 — 5. 
a Ibid., pp. 149 — 150. 



106 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

them declined to be present when the French Ambassador 
read his formal protest to Queen Elizabeth in the presence 
of most of the members of the Council : 

PROTEST OF M. MICHAEL DE SEURRE TO QUEEN 
ELIZABETH. 

[Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII.] 

Since the death of the most Christian King it has 
been openly seen that the King, his son, wished to 
succeed not only to the inheritance of his kingdom, 
but also the same zeal and affection for the repose 
and quiet of Christendom which had moved him to 
terminate the wars he had with the other Kings, his 
neighbours, and to establish between them a good 
and lasting peace and friendship ; the said successor 
not having omitted whatever was fitting and neces- 
sary for its maintenance and conservation, as testified 
by facts, and most especially with regard to the 
Queen of England, his good sister and cousin, towards 
whom he has used every possible good demonstration 
in his power, both by complying with the obligation 
of maintaining the hostages in England for the affair 
of Calais, as also by preserving for English subjects 
in this kingdom free and secure trade and contracts, 
no one of them being wronged or injured without 
reparation. Nevertheless, the Scots in this time of 
tranquillity having rebelled and withdrawn from their 
obedience to the said King and the Queen, his con- 
sort and their sovereign Lady, for the reduction of 
whom he had sent armed forces, the said Queen of 
England has fitted out a strong and powerful fleet, 
and an army likewise, and sent both to Scotland, 
founding the cause of these preparations on her 
suspicion that the French forces now there, and to be 
sent hereafter, were destined for the invasion of 
England, as she alleged had been threatened, under 
pretext that the Queen of France, Queen of Scotland, 
had the title and arms of England. But the King of 
France gave her immediately to understand by his 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 107 

Ambassadors the sincerity of his intention, and how 
averse he was to infringe the treaty, or attempt any- 
thing to the prejudice of the said sovereign Lady and 
her kingdom. To give her yet more certain testi- 
mony he has delayed the preparation of other forces 
destined by him for Scotland, and endeavoured to 
effect the reduction of the rebels by a favourable 
consideration of their misdeeds, which he was content 
to forget and to pardon if they tendered him their due 
obedience. Of this he has made declaration and 
offer to them, even praying the said sovereign Lady 
to mediate with them, to the end that this fact might 
relieve them [her?] from any suspicion and jealousy 
of the said forces, offering to remove the greater part 
subsequently, leaving only such as should be required 
for the security of his territories, and to ensure 
obedience ; which forces would be in such small 
number as no longer to leave any reasonable cause 
for doubt on this account ; and as for the rest, that 
the said King on his part would appoint envoys 
(should she choose to do the like) to settle the other 
differences which might arise between their Majesties, 
and treat them amicably, as declared by the articles 
of the said peace. 

To this proposal the said sovereign Lady offered 
no other expedient for the decision of all differences 
except the total recall of all the French forces in 
Scotland within a prefixed period, without choosing 
to enter into further negotiation and dispute ; which 
cannot but be deemed a very strange proceeding 
as, in this time of peace, negotiations are the 
mediators between Kings and Princes for the pacifi- 
cation of their differences, without its being lawful 
for one or the other to give laws or to impose con- 
ditions, which can only be applied to their own 
subjects and vassals. And what is worse, she has 
sent her fleet to Scotland, where it has made many 
depredations on the said King's subjects, both on its 
arrival on certain ships of war which were stationed 
for the safe custody of the Firth, and subsequently 



108 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

on many other vessels laden with provisions belong- 
ing to the said King and to many of his subjects. 
She has also waged open war upon his ministers 
and soldiers there, to the point of endeavouring to 
land on the Island of Chaulx, 1 to take it by surprise, 
imprisoning many of the said soldiers, and doing 
many other warlike acts. This convinced the said 
King that the said sovereign Lady intended to 
proceed further, especially as no grounds were 
afforded by the King's forces, of the number of 
which he had always informed her, the causes of 
her complaints being alike groundless, as she has 
nothing to do with, nor anything to take cognizance 
of, in Scotland. 

The King believes that he had given ample 
satisfaction by declaring his goodwill to maintain 
the said peace and by his offers to come to an 
amicable adjustment with her, as repeated by his 
Ambassador in England, the like being announced 
to her Ambassador resident with him. He has also 
appointed the Bishop of Valence, his Privy Coun- 
cillor, a very worthy person, and of authority with 
him, and has sent him likewise to confirm to the 
said Lady his good intention, which is wholly 
inclined towards the repose of Christendom, and 
to the continuation of the good friendship between 
their Majesties ; the Bishop being also charged to 
hear from her if she had still any scruple, so that 
he might give the King notice of it, and then proceed 
to Scotland to try and reduce the rebels to the 
obedience of the said King and of the Queen his 
consort, their sovereign Princess, through the 
clemency of their Majesties, who in that case offer 
to forget all their past misdeeds, and then to recall the 
greater part of their forces, and thus relieve the 
Queen of England from any further doubt on the 
subject. Nor on the other hand did the King omit 
to employ the mediation of his good brother the King 
Catholic with the said Lady ; whereupon King Philip, 
1 Sic; i.e. Burntisland. 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 109 

desiring the maintenance of peace, and well knowing 
the devastation caused by war, sent M. de Glajon 
to England. But notwithstanding so many good 
offices performed by the King of France, which 
easily make known to all Christendom the sincerity 
of his entire intention and aversion to turmoil, the 
King could not prevent the Queen of England from 
sending an army and fleet to Scotland, to expel the 
ministers and soldiers of the said Lords (King and 
Queen), as she has fully declared in a proclamation 
which she had printed, and which contains no 
semblance whatever of right, it being evident that 
this would be the way to deprive the King and 
the Queen his consort of the said kingdom, which 
would be a very unjust result, and moreover a very 
bad example to all Christian princes, that subjects 
who have rebelled against their natural lords should 
be thus favoured in their rebellion. 

Of all this the King of France has chosen to make 
a declaration to Queen Elizabeth, having given the 
Bishop an express commission to this effect, and 
again to renew the assurance of his desire for the 
preservation and duration of the peace, and the offer 
of an amicable negotiation, as previously proposed 
to the Queen ; which the said Ambassador did on 
the 15th of this month both to the Queen and to 
the Lords of her Council in the presence of Signor 
Florens da Jaceto, 1 who on the said day presented 
to them the King's letters, asking credence for him 
in what concerned this office ; the Ambassador 
praying the Queen to renounce hostilities, and to 
refer their differences for decision to personages to 
be elected by one side and the other. They answered 
him that their fleet had been for twelve days near 
the little harbour ready to continue the undertaking 
for which the Queen ordered it to enter Scotland, 
namely, to expel the French ; continuing the afore- 

1 The presentation of Diaceto alias Adjaceto to Queen Elizabeth 
took place on April 15, 1560. Apparently he merely said that the 
King of France was sorry to see her preparations for war. 



no ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

said threats, and saying that the Queen did not 
intend to lose time from interested motives, thus 
directly infringing the treaty of peace. 

M. de Seurre, therefore, and the French Ambas- 
sadors with the Queen, being charged to protest 
against this rupture of the treaties, prayed the afore- 
said M. de Glajon and the Bishop of Aquila, Ambas- 
sador of the King Catholic, to be present before the 
Queen, that they (the French) might make the protest 
in their presence, and remind her of all the offices 
performed by the King of France to satisfy her in 
what was reasonable, for the avoidance of any 
alteration of the good peace and friendship existing 
between their Majesties, so that they might bear 
witness that the King of France had not failed to 
do what he could to adjust matters amicably ; but 
they having refused, because they had no commission 
from King Philip to that effect, M. de Seurre referred 
them to the testimony of the writing, which he had 
put into form as above, and then replied by word of 
mouth to the Queen in the presence of the Lords of 
her Council ; and having obtained leave from her 
Majesty to execute what had been commanded him 
on this subject, he protested on behalf of the King 
of France, as he again protests with all humble 
reverence by the present writing, against the rupture 
of those treaties, and that all the preparations made 
and making by his Majesty for Scotland were merely 
to recover the obedience due to him and to the 
Queen his consort, having on this sole account 
offered to forget every offensive act of his subjects, 
and to pardon the past, as he again offers to do, and 
to comply with the said treaties, by appointing persons 
to settle amicably what remains for decision between 
their Majesties, and also to use all such ways and 
means as may be used between friends, and render 
her secure by recalling his forces after the submission 
of his subjects. With regard to the fears she expresses 
about its being contrary to her interests to desist 
from her undertaking against his kingdom, and to 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH in 

accept terms, the King of France will endeavour 
to defend himself and to preserve his own, protesting 
that if he is compelled to enter into a war, as the 
sequel to this commencement made by the Queen of 
England, it will be very greatly to his regret and 
displeasure, as the whole world may judge, and 
solely in self-defence. 

Elizabeth took the protest in very bad part, as Quadra and 
his colleague afterwards told the Duchess of Parma. 1 Roused 
into one of her violent humours, there was no beating 
about the bush in her lengthy outburst in reply, which Froude 
condenses as follows : 

You complain of the fleet and army which we have 
sent to Scotland. What were we to do ? Have we 
forgotten, think you, your treachery at Ambletue, 
when our brother was King ? You challenge our 
crown ; you deny our right to be Queen. You snatch 
the pretext of a rebellion to collect your armies on 
our Border ; and you expect us to sit still like children. 
You complain that we sent our fleet to intercept your 
reinforcements. It is true we did so ; and the fleet 
has done its work ; and what then ? 

Those cannon, those arms, those stores, which you 
sent to Leith were not meant only or chiefly for Scot- 
land ; they were meant for us. You tell us we are 
maintaining your rebels — we hate rebels : but the 
Scots are none. These men whom you call rebels 
are the same who fought against England at Pinkie 
Cleugh. It is you who are in fault — you who stole 
the rule of their country from them, overthrew their 
laws and sought to govern them with foreign garrisons. 
You have seized their fortresses, you have corrupted 
their money, you have filled their offices of trust with 
greedy Frenchmen, to rob and pillage them ; and 
they endured all this till they saw their sovereign 
the childless Queen of a foreign prince — herself an 
absentee — and their country, should she die, about to 
become a province of France. 

1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 151. 



ii2 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

With these facts before us we are not to be blinded 
with specious words. We know what was intended 
for ourselves — some of your own statesmen have given 
us warning of it. Your Queen claims our crown ; and 
you think that we shall be satisfied with words. You 
say you recalled d'Elbceuf. The winds and the waves 
recalled him, and our fleet in the Forth frightened 
him from a second trial. You have given us promises 
upon promises ; yet our style is still filched from us 
and your garrisons are still in Leith. We have for- 
borne long enough. We mean nothing against your 
mistress's lawful rights : but events must now take 
their course. 

The English Protestant view was expressed at this time in 
a letter to Cecil from Lord John Grey, who had shared in 
Wyatt's revolt in Mary's reign, and only obtained his life 
through the intercession of his wife. The letter was written 
from Pyrgo, in Essex, one of the estates granted to him by 
Elizabeth : 

LORD JOHN GREY TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 
[Haynes' "Burghley Papers."] 

Pyrgo, April 20, 1560. 

. . . My trust is that her Majesty will now go 
through with what she hath begun, because it is God's 
cause, the Commonwealth's safety, and her own 
surety. And as for King Philip's aiding of his brother 
against the heretic Scots, the Queen may (and she 
will not sleep her matters) win Leith, and put the 
country in some good stay before he shall be able to 
levy a man. There are but three ways to the winning 
of a fort — famine, assault and the mine ; the first is 
long and tedious ; the second is some loss of men ; 
the last is easiest of all, the ground serving for it. 
But what thing was there ever achieved or won by 
war without the loss of men and expense of money ? 
I know not what great ordnance My Lord of Norfolk 
hath with him, but if he have good provision of wheels, 
every ship there may lend him a cannon, and their 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 113 

ships never a whit the more unfurnished ; and so, 
while they trench for the placing of their battery, may 
with more safety and less suspicion enter their mines, 
for I know and remember well the ground, that I am 
sure the upper part of the town of Leith will be 
undermined. The coalminers at Newcastle will serve 
to do this well enough ; therefore I pray you set it to 
work, that the Queen's money be not spent in vain, to 
our shame, her dishonour, and the great applauding 
of God's enemies and hers, the Papists I mean, as 
well abroad as at home. The Queen must so counte- 
nance My Lord Grey with some good entertainment, 
as she may put a new courage in him, and then let 
him alone ; giving him his furniture. God willing, I 
mind to see you within these fourteen days, wherefore 
I say the less now. Thus with my commendations 
(from the bottom of my heart) to My Lady my cousin 
and you, I bid ye farewell in Christ. 

Your loving cousin and assured friend to his 
power, 

John Grey. 

The letter which the Queen's Council wrote to Lord Grey 
on bidding him God speed might almost have been written 
in answer to the above. It wastes no words in empty rhetoric, 
or long-winded instructions. Obviously, the Council meant, 
as Lord John advised, to give him good courage, and then let 
him alone : 

THE QUEEN'S COUNCIL TO LORD GREY DE WILTON. 
[Haynes' " Burghley Papers."'} 

After our hearty commendations. We will not 
trouble your Lordship howsoever you be occupied, 
but bid God speed you, and wish you all good fortune 
to accomplish this so honourable a journey as never 
the like was attempted for good to our posterity. 
Stick not to go through with this enterprise, and your 
praise will be more than all the rest of your life, if all 
your life were laid together. Take heed of French 

E.M.S. I 



ii4 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

enchantments ; they will win time of you, if you take 
not good end. Well, thus we leave your Lordship to 
your business. 

Unfortunately Lord Grey, though full of courage, and 
eager to atone for his loss of Guisnes in 1558, failed to 
fulfil the high hopes which had been centred in him. The 
new siege of Leith, where the French troops were under the 
command of D'Oyssel, resolved itself for the first month into 
a series of parleys and ineffective skirmishes. " My Lord 
Grey," wrote Norfolk, who remained with the reserves at 
Newcastle, to Cecil on April 26, " showeth himself forward 
enough, but all is not in him that hath been thought. I am 
a subject and will obey, but if with my allegiance I may, I 
will rather lie in prison than ever come such a journey, where 
another shall have the doing and I the burthen. . . . The 
mariners [Winter's sailors] offer, if they might have the 
spoil, they will enter it, or die therefore. There is no 
defence to the water side, but borders with sand cast against 
it ; and no other part of the town much stronger, except it be 
towards the north-west part, where they have made a citadel 
which will serve them to small purpose when they have lost 
the nether part of the town." * 

Meantime, on the approach of the English army, the Queen 
Regent had taken refuge in Edinburgh Castle, held by the 
neutral Lord Erskine. She was slowly dying from dropsy, 
and knew that her days were numbered, but nothing could 
daunt her courageous spirit, and to the last she remained 
the most heroic figure of the campaign. While the siege 
of Leith was in progress John de Monluc, the Bishop of 
Valence, had been sent to Scotland by way of the English 
Court, as stated on p. 108, assuring Elizabeth that his sole 
desire was to satisfy her Majesty in the matter. Once in 
Scotland, however, where his protracted negotiations took the 
heart out of the siege, his efforts, in concert with the Queen 
Regent, were aimed solely with the view of striking a bargain 
with the Scots at England's expense. Happily this double 
dealing was doomed to failure, the plot so cunningly devised 
collapsing because the Scots, to their credit, declined to 
renounce their alliance with their allies, though Monluc and 

1 Haynes' Burghley Papers. 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 115 

the Regent promised, if they would do so, to send away all 
the French troops, to grant a general pardon to the rebels, 
and guarantee them liberty of conscience. " The parley broke 
up," wrote the Queen Regent in an intercepted letter to 
D'Oyssel, "on the article of the league with England, for 
they would not revoke their hostages, and would have put 
the matter to the Estates. They are gone so far they cannot 
get out of it ; whereof I can very well make profit, and will 
not fail to publish it. My health is better, but I am 
still lame," she adds, "and have a leg that assuageth not 
from swelling. If any lay his finger upon it, it goeth in 
as into butter. You know there are but three days for the 
dropsy in this country." ! The grief of Mary Stuart when 
she learned how her mother was situated — without hope of 
further help being sent her for months — is described by the 
Venetian Ambassador at the Court of France : 

When the great danger of the Queen Regent was 
known here, she being at the mercy of the English, 
the most Christian Queen [Mary Stuart], both on 
account of her mother, lest she remain prisoner, as 
also from her Majesty's own fear for the loss of her 
kingdom, would take no sort of comfort or consolation 
given her either by the most Christian King, by the 
Queen-mother [Catherine de' Medici], by her uncles, 
or by the other Princes or Princesses of the Court ; 
she shed most bitter tears incessantly, and at length 
from anguish and sorrow has taken to her bed. 2 

Monluc had left the Queen Regent after the failure of his 
negotiations and proceeded to Berwick, promising a relieving 
army by July at the latest. Leith had provisions which 
were variously estimated as likely to last to June, July, or 
August. Up to the present the French troops had still proved 
more than a match for the undisciplined Englishmen, and 
the equally unseasoned Scots, weakened as they were by 
fatal jealousies and distrust. The allies were taught more 
than one rough lesson by the beleaguered garrison during this 
month, notably on one occasion, when a party of French- 

1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 389. 

2 Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII., p. 198. 

I 2 



n6 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

men, disguised as women, coolly walked round the English 
trenches, killed a sentinel who had probably suspected their 
identity, and carried off his head with which to decorate a 
pinnacle of Leith Church. On the following day, flushed 
with this little success, the Frenchmen made a surprise 
attack in considerable force, spiked all the guns within 
reach, and did not retire until they had placed a hundred 
and sixty men hors de combat, and brought half the investing 
army into the field. " It was one of the hottest skirmishes 
ever seen," wrote the Duke of Norfolk in reporting the 
affair to Cecil. 1 Norfolk grew increasingly restive, and 
Elizabeth herself, now that Monluc's treachery had been 
discovered, ordered the siege to be more earnestly prosecuted. 
Grey accordingly pushed his lines forward, and a succession 
of small successes led him to write hopefully of an early 
capture of the position. On April 30 a destructive fire broke 
out in the town and he thought that at length he had the 
place within his grasp. Yet the next day the French gaily 
undeceived him by a brave display of maypoles on the walls. 
At the beginning of this month, too, the Regent was able to 
send d'Oyssel warning of the disastrous assault which Grey 
delivered on May 7, goaded to desperation by these and 
other humiliations, as well as by impatient messages from 
Court : 

THE QUEEN REGENT OF SCOTLAND TO D'OYSSEL. 

[Wright's "Queen Elizabeth and her Times."'] 

May, 1560. 

Since the arrival of the enemy outside Leith, I 
have heard nothing from you. I have sent divers 
letters to you, and have learned that they have been 
all taken in going. The negotiation is broken upon 
the coming of the English, because our folk will not, 
or cannot, leave off, and it is now eight days since 
they went hence. The Queen of England continueth 
her dissimulations : but for all that, the King resteth 
not so much thereupon, but that he hath advertised 
the King of Spain thereof, who hath promised to let 

1 Hatfield MSS. I., p. 211. 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 117 

him have ships and victuals. The King in the mean- 
time hath caused four and twenty great ships to be 
armed to be sent hither, with other force, which he 
causes to be made ready. This is the substance of a 
letter sent to the Bishop of Valence. . . . 

A man, of late, which arrived from London, hath 
promised to Lord Gre) T to separate, within three days 
and nights, the new bulwark of St. Anthony from 
the town, so as it shall be easy for them to assail 
the rest of the town, wherefore provide for it on that 
side. The Lord Grey vaunteth that by Monday or 
Tuesday night, which shall be the 6th or 7th day of 
May, he will enter into the town, or it shall cost him 
many of his men, and their meaning is to give the 
assault at the break of day. They have required that 
the Lords, Lairds, and Scots' gentlemen take every 
one of them an English gentleman of like degree by 
the hand when they go to the assault. 

It was this warning, and the fact that the storming parties 
were furnished with scaling ladders six feet or more too 
short * which helped as much as anything to give the victory 
to the French veterans on that humiliating day for the allies. 
As the men scrambled to the top of the useless ladders in the 
dim light of early morning, they were met by a devastating 
storm of shot, stones, and blazing pitch. Even the Scots- 
women of the town — " the Frenchmen's harlots " as they 
were called — joined in the defence, loading the guns, or 
carrying scalding water to the battlements. " The dying 
Mary of Lorraine," writes Froude in describing the scene 
in one of his most eloquent — but surely misleading — passages, 
" had been carried from her bed to the walls of the Castle 
[Edinburgh] to watch the fight. As the sun rose out of the 
Forth, she saw the English columns surge like the sea waves 
against the granite ramparts, and like the sea waves fall 
shattered into spray." Froude's picture is doubtless drawn 
from Knox's incredible account of this alleged incident, but 
it has been pointed out that dropsy, in the case of the dying 
Queen Regent, had probably affected her eyesight so seriously 
that she would be able to distinguish little or nothing across 
1 Hatfield MSS., Vol. I., p. 219. 



n8 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

the two miles which lay between the walls of Edinburgh 
Castle and the ramparts at Leith. Lord Grey broke the 
unwelcome news to Norfolk in a joint letter signed also by 
Lord Henry Scrope, Sir Ralph Sadler, Sir James Croft and 
Sir George Howard : 

LORD GREY, &c. TO THE DUKE OF NORFOLK. 
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.] 

Leith Camp, May y, 1560. 

We should be glad to advertise you of good 
success : but such as it is, your grace must needs 
understand it. Yesterday, devising all possible ways 
and means to achieve the enterprise, according to 
your grace's often advertisement, we caused the 
ordnance officers to make two breaches, one on the 
west side of the town, on both sides of the river 
which is impaled ; the other on the bulwark of the 
church on the south-west side, and the curtain of 
same : their pieces being planted the night before. 
Both breaches being made, though not so well as we 
would have wished it, we ordered the assault as 
your grace shall see by the enclosed writing. This 
morning before day we had our men in the field, and 
at daybreak attempted assault, and if they had kept 
order and valiantly gone to it, surely the town had 
been won. But by their disorder and cowardice, for 
indeed (except the small number of the Berwick 
bands) they are but raw soldiers, without skill for 
such hot work as appertains to a well manned and 
defended town like Leith, we were repulsed with 
heavy loss, the number we cannot presently advertise 
— but we think we have 1,000 hurt and slain. We 
shall not be able to maintain more assaults, seeing 
our small power — but we think we can keep the field. 
As our chief leaders and best soldiers are slain and 
hurt, we find ourselves in very ill case, and beseech 
your grace's direction in that behalf. Our men are 
much wearied and toiled with watch and ward, 
which we are forced to make very strong to guard 
our ordnance and trenches ; and we would fain 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 119 

have a greater power of Englishmen if possible, for 
there is no trust to be given to the Scots. Our 
powder and munition are greatly wasted, and our store 
of sheaf arrows wholly spent. While sorry we have 
no better news, yet comfort ourselves that we have 
done, and shall do, our utmost duty, and are not the 
first that have been repulsed at an assault. 

The English army had a thankless task from the first. 
It was not only suspected in the field, but the citizens of 
Edinburgh displayed little of the milk of human kindness 
even for the wounded after this repulse. " We are so 
well esteemed here," wrote Sir George Howard to Norfolk 
on the day of defeat, " that all our poor hurt men are 
fain to lie in the streets, and can get no house room for 
money. Horse-meat is so dear that our soldiers cannot live 
on their wages." l Elizabeth was full of wrath when news of 
the disaster first reached her ears, as the long-suffering Cecil 
found to his cost : 

SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO SIR NICHOLAS 
THROCKMORTON. 

[Forbe's "Full View of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth."] 

Westminster, May 13, 1560. 

. . . God trieth us with many difficulties. The 
Queen's Majesty never liked this matter of Scotland. 
You know what hangeth thereupon : weak-hearted 
men and flatterers will follow that way. And now, 
when we look for best fortune, the worst comes. 
Upon Tuesday the 7th of this month, our men offered 
an assault to Leith ; and being not assaultable, they 
were repulsed with the loss of a thousand men : never 
a captain was slain, nor any of any value, but officers 
and sergeants of bands. My Lord Grey is over 
doubtful. My Lord of Norfolk hath sent a supply, 
and like a prince of great honour and wisdom 
mindeth the reinforcement. The Queen's Majesty 
also mindeth the achieving of this matter so 
earnestly as nothing shall be spared. Order is given 

1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. L, p. 398. 



120 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

to send both men, money and artillery with all pos- 
sible speed. I have had such a torment herein with 
the Queen's Majesty as an ague hath not in five fits 
so much abated. 

It only needed this set-back to fill Elizabeth with 
enthusiasm for the Scottish cause. Sir Peter Carew was 
at once dispatched to find out on the spot the true reason 
for the failure, the exact number of Scots and English slain, 
and " to assure the lords of Scotland the Queen will never 
give up this enterprise till she has this revenged, and that 
land set at liberty." To the Duke of Norfolk the Queen 
wrote in similar comforting strains : 

QUEEN ELIZABETH TO THE DUKE OF NORFOLK. 

[Haynes' " Burghley Papers."] 

May ii, 1560. 

Right trusty and right well-beloved Cousin, we 
greet you well. By the Lord Grey's letters of the 
7th hereof, we perceive that on Tuesday last an 
assault was given to Leith, wherein, by means of 
disorder, our men had a repulse ; and that as it 
seemeth the place was not assaultable there was not 
any second assault given ; nor, as we can understand, 
the Lord Grey will not, with the number which he 
hath, venture to give another assault, but will keep 
the field and siege. We be sorry to see that the 
success was no better, but considering the importance 
of the matter will neither suffer delay, nor retire, but 
that the enterprise must needs be achieved, for the 
honour and surety of our realm and ourselves, we 
mean further so to reinforce this matter with all 
manner of things lacking that it shall not by God's 
grace be left undone. And, therefore, where you 
have taken order to levy within your Lieutenancy 
two thousand new men, we mean also to send with 
all speed two thousand more, out of the shires that 
lie next to your Lieutenancy. And we would that 
you should presently recomfort our army in Scotland 
with assurance of a speedy reinforcement ; and to let 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 121 

them know that there shall lack nothing that may 
accomplish the enterprise ; but that yourself will 
rather come in person with a main power, than it 
should not be speedily accomplished to our honour. 

Writing to Cecil on the same day (May n) Lord Grey 
declared that the number defeated at the repulse was 
" nothing so much as bruited, but our men continually run 
away to England, both by sea and land." 1 Sir Peter Carew's 
statement to the Queen certifies that only about 120 were 
slain, " whereof a third were Scots. All agree," he added, 
" that the battery prevaileth not, and that the only way to 
win is by sap or famine." 2 He also confirmed suspicions 
already aroused that the Queen was being " marvellously 
robbed," in the Anglo-Scottish camp, where the monthly 
charge of the whole army amounted to £20,000, thousands 
of men being charged for who were not serving in the camp. 
Sir James Croft, the Governor of Berwick, was accused by 
Norfolk of being one of the chief offenders in this respect, in 
addition to discouraging English friends in Scotland, and 
wholly neglecting his duty on the day of the great assault. 
" I thought a man could not have gone nigher a traitor, and 
have missed, than Sir James Croft," wrote the Duke to 
Cecil, who was then himself in Scotland, dispatched to the 
theatre of war with Dr. Nicholas Wotton, Dean of Canter- 
bury, in order to see what diplomacy could do on the spot 
to bring the war to an end. It was reported that the Queen 
Regent's life was hanging by a thread ; that the besieged 
town, now that English reinforcements had reached it, and 
made a closer investment possible, was running perilously 
short of food ; and that the French garrison had little hope 
of help arriving before August — and then only in the 
problematical event of Philip of Spain's assistance. The 
time was ripe, therefore, for fresh negotiations with the 
French Commissioners, who included the Bishops of 
Valence and Amiens, M. de Randan, M. la Brosse, and 
M. D'Oyssel. " I expect they will do no more than 
hitherto," wrote Quadra suspiciously on June 3, 3 " as the 

1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 404. 

2 Hatfield MSS., Part I., p. 227. 

3 Spanish Calendar. 



122 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

Queen expects to reduce Leith by hunger, and the French 
are not in earnest, but hope to arrange with the rebels, 
and then try their designs on this country." The Venetian 
Ambassadors in France were nearer the truth when, towards 
the close of the following letter, they suggested that the 
increasing unrest throughout Christendom would compel 
France to accept any fair adjustment of her affairs in Scot- 
land. Thirty thousand Huguenots were expected to rise in 
the spreading revolt in her own country, where the Guises 
went daily in fear of their lives. Spain, too, had just suffered 
a crushing defeat in the Mediterranean at the hands of the 
Turks, and there was no chance now of a Spanish fleet 
arriving in the Forth to help the beleaguered Frenchmen : 

THE VENETIAN AMBASSADORS IN FRANCE TO THE 

DOGE AND SENATE. 

[ Venetian Calendar : Vol. VII.] 

Ramorantin, June 3, 1560. 

To-day, when discoursing with the Cardinal oi 
Lorraine about these affairs of England and Scotland, 
and on our asking what news had been brought by a 
gentleman who arrived thence yesterday, his Right 
Reverend Lordship announced the presence in Eng- 
land of M. de Randan, who had arranged a 
conference on the 5th instant to be held on the 
frontiers between the Queen's ministers and those of 
the most Christian King, which was to be attended 
by the Scottish chiefs, to negotiate an adjustment, for 
which purpose each side had named five individuals, 
the English delegates having already left London for 
the site of the conference. The Cardinal added that 
the most Christian King, for the sake of avoiding 
delay and impediments to the adjustment, had not 
chosen to give any further instruction to M. de 
Randan about its conditions, referring them abso- 
lutely to the will ol the Queen Regent in Scotland, 
who might according to her opinion conclude any 
treaty whatever, which would be approved and ratified 
without contradiction by his most Christian Majesty 
and the Queen his consort. 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 123 

Concerning Little Leith the Cardinal said that a 
yeoman of the chamber in the service of his most 
Christian Majesty, who departed thence on the gth 
ultimo, and came hither by way of Flanders, related 
that the English troops had three times assaulted the 
place, twice by day and once by night, with scaling 
ladders, and that they had on each occasion been 
repulsed with much loss, more than six hundred of 
them having been killed the first time, so that now 
the remainder of the English do not exceed from 3,000 
to 4,000, the Scots being rather more in number. 
Having seen that cannonading and assaults were 
fruitless, and having withdrawn the artillery, they 
commenced raising forts about the place to besiege it, 
as was done at La Mirandola, but the French com- 
manders, as they assured his Majesty that they were 
not in the least afraid of being stormed, so with 
regard to siege they sent to say they were provisioned 
for the whole of July ; the Cardinal adding his belief 
that they were victualled for a still longer period. He 
said that the Scots began to have greater suspicion 
and anxiety about the English, mutual distrust exist- 
ing more openly between them than they had about 
the French ; wherefore the Queen of England did not 
cease arming to the utmost by land and sea, having 
detained a great number of ships, both of Venetians 
and other foreigners and of the kingdom, that she 
may increase as much as possible her fleet now at sea, 
impressing men by force on board, her object being to 
fight the French fleet and prevent its landing rein- 
forcements in Scotland, should the war continue. It 
is also that the said Queen has given a subsidy to the 
Duke of Holstein, 1 brother of the King of Denmark, 
who has been in England for many months, for 7,000 
foot and 1,000 German horse, who are already 
mustered for the service of the said Queen ; and she 
has taken till the 1st of July either to dismiss them 

1 The Foreign Calendar shows that he was in London on April 9, 
1560, that the Queen made him a K.G. at Greenwich on June 20, 
and that he left England on June 28. 



124 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

entirely or to send the supplement of their pay so as 
to remove and embark them for England, hoping that 
by that date the conclusion or rejection of the 
agreement will have been accomplished. 

I hear on good authority that the French Ministry 
suspect that in addition to these preparations the 
movements heard of in Germany are perhaps not for 
the affairs of Metz, the Cardinal himself having told 
me that not only the Emperor but almost all the 
Princes were arming, naming to us the Count Palatine, 
the Duke of Wurtemburg, the Duke of Bavaria, the 
Duke of Saxony, and others. Hence France is 
expected to consent to any fair adjustment of the 
affairs of Scotland and England. 

The English case is stated by Cecil and Wotton in the 
letter which they sent from Newcastle, explaining to the 
Privy Council the objects of their journey : 

SIR WILLIAM CECIL AND NICHOLAS WOTTON TO 
THE PRIVY COUNCIL. 

[Haynes' " Burghley Papers."] 

Newcastle, June n, 1560. 

Your Lordships shall perceive by the Queen's 
Majesty's letters, that now we be all going into 
Scotland, and besides divers other causes, two 
principally move us to accord thereunto ; the one 
is the danger of the Queen's life, and the discourage 
in the town, shall rather provoke the Ambassadors to 
be more ready to accord : the other is, we see that 
without being nigh the place we shall not without loss 
of much time come to an end. We trust on Saturday 
to be at Edinburgh, and on Sunday in the afternoon, 
and Monday in the forenoon to enter into substantial 
talk. The supply of the southern men cometh very 
slowly, although, as we hear by report, marvellously 
chargeable to the people by new devices in arraying 
of the soldiers. We look hourly to hear of the state 
of the Queen Dowager. On Saturday she was, we 
hear, speechless. The report is that the town is 
much destitute of victuals, but until we know the 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 125 

truth more certainly, we will not affirm it, for some 
suspicion that we have of the contrary. True it is 
that D'Oyssel offered to Sir Henry Percy 1 to have 
some communication, being afraid of the Lord Grey's 
cruelty. 

We think it were not amiss to let it be understood 
to the King Catholic's ministers that we be entered 
into a very good way towards accord, and that we 
find things not so hard to accord as was doubted 
upon ; and by this means it shall be reason that the 
King of Spain be neither at cost of sending his ships 
nor at pain to name umpires. And so we leave your 
good Lordships. 

Postscript. — Your Lordships shall perceive by my 
good Lord of Norfolk's letter that he is advertised of 
the Queen Dowager's death. Hereupon will follow 
sundry alterations. If the French return now with- 
out following their commission, although we will pro- 
voke them to continue, what shall we do ? If they 
require the presence of some of their colleagues in the 
town we will not allow it without your order. If 
they require assistance of other Scotsmen, that 
were French, which we think not unreasonable, 
although we think none will be so bold, what shall 
we do? Of these things we beseech your Lordships 
to think and to advertise us of the Queen's Majesty's 
pleasure. 

Your Lordships humbly at command, 

W. Cecil, N. Wotton. 

The passing of Mary of Guise broke the back of the 
French defence at Leith. How bravely the Regent held 
out has already been shown, and the last scene of all — 
her dying farewell to her rebellious nobles — is one of the 
familiar, as well as one of the most moving incidents in 
Scottish history. " There was none of so hard a heart or 
stout a stomach, or adamant a heart " in all the grievous 
company summoned to her deathbed, wrote Lesley, " but was 

1 Brother of the Earl of Northumberland, and afterwards his 
successor, who commanded the English cavalry in Scotland. 



i 2 6 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

moved to tears." " Your serenity may imagine the regret 
of these Guise Lords, her Majesty's brothers," remarked 
Giovanni Michel, in describing the reception of the news in 
France, " as well as of the most Christian Queen, who loved 
her mother incredibly, and much more than daughters 
usually love their mothers." 1 In another letter the same 
Ambassador relates how the news was concealed from Mary 
Stuart for more than a week, and how when at length it was 
broken to her by the Cardinal of Lorraine, " her Majesty 
showed and still shows such signs of grief that during the 
greater part of yesterday she passed from one agony to 
another." 

Cecil did not fail to make full use of the advantage which 
this new turn of events gave him and his colleagues over the 
French Commissioners in the peace negotiations, though 
there was endless wrangling with them over the final details. 
" We departed from Berwick on Saturday so late by 
quarrelling and spending of time with the French about 
those articles," he wrote with Wotton on June 19, in describ- 
ing the progress of the conference, " that some of us were 
constrained to lie that night in our clothes." a Cecil's 
policy is disclosed in his next letter, which also shows, 
towards the end, on what familiar terms he could address 
her Majesty on the delicate subject of a husband : 

SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
[Wright's "Elizabeth and her Times.'''''] 

Edinburgh, June 21, 1560. 

It may please your most excellent Majesty, since 
our common letters of the igth, wherein we declared 
how far we had proceeded to that time, we find that 
this abstinence hath done us much good divers ways. 
The strength of the town hath been quietly and truly 
viewed ; there hath been also means used to draw 
some special men out of the town from the French ; 
and at this present I perceive the men of war make 
little doubt of winning the town, having the army 

1 Venetian Calendar, Vol. VIL, p. 228 — 9. 

2 Haynes' Burghley Papers. 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 127 

here to besiege it. Nevertheless, I and Mr. Wotton 
take another way, and mean to obtain that by treaty 
with a peace to follow that others would by loss ot 
blood, with a war to follow. We doubt not but to 
obtain all reasonable things saving surety towards both 
these realms, and such is the case being betwixt a 
Prince and subjects, as we know not how to provide 
for surety of subjects against all adventures, without 
such dishonour to the Prince as neither will be 
granted, nor can be reasonably demanded for subjects. 
I assure your Majesty, these cases be marvellous 
difficult to resolve, and yet considering I know the 
French malice, and am wholly addicted to your 
Majesty's honour and surety, I would not yield so 
much to the French Queen's honour in behalf of her 
subjects, if your coffers were full to maintain but one 
year's war, such would be your honour, conquest, and 
surety. Our greatest difficulties at this present will 
stand upon the continuance of the league betwixt 
your Majesty and this realm, wherein I find the 
Scots so peremptory that they will stand fast thereto 
that they will never accord to break it of their part. 
Within two days it will appear what shall ensue 
thereof, for I see the French be as peremptory, so 
that except the moderation come of our part, I see no 
hope of accord. Thus much I am bold to trouble 
your Majesty in this matter. I understand by Mr. 
Petre's letters, 1 that your Majesty would have me 
consider the advertisements out of France brought by 
Mr. Jones, wherein I am to seek what to write, for I 
think they be such things as are brought to your 
Ambassador to content him, but how certain they be 
I know not, and upon uncertainties I connot advise 
any certain counsel. I think surely France is dis- 
turbed, 2 but I see no likelihood of continuance .... 
The offer made of certain towns in Brittany and 
Normandy liketh me well, and the same would be so 

1 Sir William Petre, Chancellor of the Garter, and a principal 
Secretary of State during the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., 
Mary and Elizabeth. He died in 1571. 

2 Alluding to the religious troubles in France. 



128 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

allowed, but I cannot give your Majesty counsel to 
embrace things so far off. No strength is tenable 
that is far distant, neither behoveth it that the crown 
of England should enter into war without surety of 
all Britain. Profitable it is for time to divert the 
enemy by procuring him business at home. 

If it should not please God to give us His grace to 
make a peace presently, (whereof I would be sorry), 
there be many ways to offend your enemy withal, with- 
out great charge, whereof I will forbear now to write, 
because I do bend myself to peace. This afternoon, 
Mr. Wotton and I should have heard the French and 
Scots' artillery, I should say articles of their treaty, 
but they be so long in planting that I think it will be 
to-morrow in the morning before the battery will 
shoot off. The French seek all the ways they can to 
put a jealousy in the Scots of us, so as we see what 
they shoot at ; wherein if there were not more trust 
that the matters would keep them asunder and us 
together, than in any certainty of the nation of Scot- 
land, I would fear more than I do. But surely the 
hatred to the French is such, and the causes so many, 
the benevolence at this time towards England is so 
great, and with such desert, that I see not that in 
long time the French shall recover the mind of Scots- 
men against us as in times past hath been. Since 
the Queen's death, here be none that dare openly 
show favour to the French. The bishops that be 
most offended, dare not show any countenance to 
these men, nor dare come out of the castle for hatred 
of the common people. We did offer to the Arch- 
bishop of St. Andrews, 1 a guard to come to the 
Ambassador's, but he durst not, and so the French 
Ambassador went into the castle to him and others. 

I will no more-molest your Majesty, but use my 
continual-prayer that God would direct your heart to 
procure a father for your children, and so shall the 
children of all your realm bless your seed. Neither 

1 John Hamilton, natural son of James Hamilton, first Earl of 
Arran, who had been made Archbishop of St. Andrews in 1546, 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 129 

peace nor war without this will profit us long. 
Which, in the name of God (I am now a preacher), I 
humbly beseech your Majesty to consider earnestly, 
for otherwise surely God will require a sharp account 
at your hand, for your time lost, and the danger of 
bloodshed of your miserable people. I trust of your 
Majesty's pardon. 

Your Majesty's humble subject and unworthy 
servant. 

W. Cecil. 

The history of the protracted negotiations is recorded by 
the Commissioners at great length in their subsequent corre- 
spondence, printed in extenso in the " Burghley Papers," but 
too tedious to follow here. Suffice it to say that the Treaty 
of Edinburgh, which was signed on July 6, was a victory for 
the English and Scots on almost every point in dispute. 
Cecil and Wotton, highly delighted, sent Elizabeth the fol- 
lowing letter on the proclamation of the peace two days later : 

SIR WILLIAM CECIL AND DR. NICHOLAS WOTTON 
TO QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

[Haynes' "Burghley Papers.'"] 

Edinburgh, July 8, 1560. 

It may please your Majesty, yesterday the peace 
was here proclaimed, first in the town of Leith, in the 
presence of certain gentlemen of England, and next in 
the camp, in the presence of certain of the French. 
It seemeth surely very welcome to all parts. This 
day the artillery on both sides is withdrawing to 
places whence it shall be carried to-morrow to be 
embarked, and we herein employ ourselves to make 
all the haste that can be possible. As yet we cannot 
certainly understand the state of the town, otherwise 
than thus : The number appear to be many, and those 
which be seen are, for all their scarcity of victual, 
looking very well, and all very well armed. The 
French demanded yesterday shipping for fourthousand 
persons, and we think they be not under three thou- 
sand soldiers, which, in all men's judgment, had been 

E.M.S. K 



130 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

able to have encountered a great number ; and, if they 
had stood to it, should have been the occasion of the 
shedding of a great deal of blood, which is now well 
saved. As for the substance of our accord, your 
Majesty shall please to understand that it consisteth 
in these points : 

First. — A reconciliation made, and the Treaty of 
Cateau Cambresis reduced to its former strength. 
Next, all the men-of-war to be removed, saving sixty 
in the isle here, which indeed serveth to no purpose, 
and so the French do see and confess ; and sixty in 
Dunbar, whose new fortification shall be also, before 
your army depart out of Scotland, demolished. This 
town of Leith shall also be fully demolished. 

Item. — All hostile preparation shall cease on both 
parts, and no ship shall be transported with men-of- 
war, or any warly apparel, out of France, or any 
other place, by consent of the French, into England, 
Scotland, or Ireland, nor any from England or Ireland 
into France. 

Next to this, your Majesty's undoubted right to the 
Crown of England and Ireland is fully confessed and 
acknowledged, with a certain declaration that no 
person may use the style or arms thereof but your 
Majesty only ; and thereupon followeth the part for 
the redress and reformation of all things anywise done 
to the contrary, both in France and Scotland. 

And where we persisted in demand of Calais, and 
five hundred thousand crowns for a recompense, the 
same, as touching the recompense, is referred to a 
new Treaty to be had betwixt us at London ; and if it 
be not ended by us within three months, then it is 
referred to King Philip for a twelvemonth, and if he 
end it not, your right and demand for the recompense 
is referred to your Majesty. 

Next to this followeth the covenant to your Majesty 
for observing of the Treaty now accorded betwixt the 
French and the Scots ; which article was as hardly 
obtained as any, and next to it, the recognition of your 
Majesty's right to the Crown. 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 131 

After this, doth follow ordinary articles for observa- 
tion and confirmation of this Treaty. And this is the 
sum of our Treaty, which, with the accord of Scotland, 
hath spent us sixteen days, that is from the 16th of 
June to the third of July, and of that time three 
parts hath been spent in according of the matters of 
Scotland. 

Then follows a detailed list of the clauses in the separate 
Treaty with Scotland, by which France, among other con- 
cessions, agreed that all her troops should be withdrawn save 
an insignificant handful — 120 all told — to be left under the 
control and in the pay of the Scottish nobles ; the rebels were 
to be pardoned ; the ordinary offices of the realm were to be 
furnished only with Scottish subjects, a Scottish council was 
to be appointed for the governance of the country, and the King 
and Queen of France were never to make war there with- 
out the consent of the three estates. The treaties were only 
signed by the Commissioners in the nick of time, for Eliza- 
beth, fearful lest the Scots should obtain all the advantages, 
sent instructions to Cecil at the last moment that he was in 
no wise to abandon the demand for the restitution of Calais, 
and the payment of an indemnity for the usurpation of the 
English arms. In the event of the French Ambassadors not 
acceding thereto he was to break off negotiations. Luckily 
this letter did not reach the Secretary's hands until the day 
after the Treaty had been signed. His letter in reply shows 
how shrewdly he realised the value of this happy mishap : 

SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
[Froude's "History of England."] 

Edinburgh, July 9, 1560. 

It may please your Majesty ; the sight of your most 
gracious letter written with your own blessed hands, 
before I had deciphered it, raised me up in such 
height of comfort that after I perceived the sense 
thereof my fall was greater into the deep dungeon of 
sorrow than ever I thought any letter of your Majesty's 
should have thrown me. And yet after a season 
gathering my astonished spirits together, I am risen 

k 2 



i 3 2 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

into this opinion and comfort of your Majesty's accus- 
tomed goodness towards me, and of my own clearness 
of mind and soul, that when it shall appear by our 
letters sent from hence the 6th of this month how 
far we were proceeded, and that also it shall be well 
weighed in all parts how honourable and necessary 
this peace is, and how it could not be made any other 
way, your Majesty will not only take and allow our 
doings, but will think it a good luck that we had not 
these your letters before our conclusion ; for so had 
no peace at all been gotten. For breaking off upon 
the matter of Calais, the French ambassadors would 
have departed and my Lord of Norfolk should have 
entered ; whereupon must within ten days have hap- 
pened one of these three things — either the loss ol 
the town, and a perpetual dishonour of the realm — or 
a winning of it by assault, to the effusion of a great 
deal of Christian blood — or a taking of it by com- 
position — by any of which three ways wars still should 
have remained ; and then by what means Calais could 
have been obtained, I see not ; nor by what means 
this manner of peace would have hereafter been 
obtained, I neither see, nor can consider. 

As for the message brought by Tremayne, 1 God 
forbid that your Majesty should enter into that 
bottomless pit of expense of your force and treasure, 
within the French King's own mainland — being that 
manner of war to you more troublesome and danger- 
ous than this of the French King here in Scotland ; 
and yet this is his advantage, that the obedience of 
this is due to his wife and cannot be lost ; and there 
your Majesty should have no more to further you but 
a devotion popular upon opinions of religion ; wherein 
the French King, rather than lose that country, would 
not stick to incline to his people's request, and so 
your Majesty's purpose could not then last. 

Indeed this I could and meant always to have 

1 There were two Tremaynes, one of whom was with the army at 
Leith. Both had been employed in carrying messages between the 
Prince of Conde, the Admiral Chatillon, and Elizabeth. — Froude. 



THE SIEGE OF LEITH 133 

allowed, that if ye could not come to a reasonable 
accord with France, but that they would continue 
wars, then your Majesty should have entertained that 
matter of Brittany and Normandy — to have therewith 
offended and annoyed the French King. But as to 
have taken and kept any piece there, experience of 
Boulogne being in sight of Dover teacheth us what 
to do ; and when I consider that for charges neither 
is Portsmouth your own haven fortified, neither the 
town of Berwick — most necessary of all others — 
finished ; I should think it strange to take Brest or 
any other town in those parts to keep longer than of 
necessity the French would maintain wars against 
your Majesty; which being now ceased, and to your 
great honour, I think it a happy mishap that your 
Majesty's letter came not before our conclusion. In 
which my opinion I most humbly beseech your 
Majesty to pardon me, submitting myself to your 
Majesty's reformation as becometh me. 

The Spanish Ambassador had little faith in the value of 
the Treaty as a binding or permanent agreement. " In my 
opinion " he wrote to Philip, x " the French 'are dissatisfied, 
and the Queen displeased, and it may be feared that on the 
two points of the renovation of the league with the Scots, 
and the indemnity she claims of the French, affairs may 
again become embroiled, unless indeed the displeasure and 
grievance they both feel against your Majesty may lead them 
to think of something worse. I say nothing of French affairs, 
as your Majesty understands them better than I, although I 
do not like what I see of these ministers here ; but, as regards 
this Queen, I can assure your Majesty she is so angry and 
offended at the thought that not only would you not help 
her, but had offered to aid her enemies, that it is to be feared 
that she will do all the harm she has strength to do. M. de. 
Glajon is aware how inconsiderately she one day showed 
her ill-feeling to him and me, saying that your Majesty was 
her secret enemy, and Glajon also knows how these people 
regard us, although the Queen uses extreme artfulness in 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 109. 



134 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

trying to make me believe she is devoted to your Majesty." 
The French rulers were so dissatisfied that they were, in point 
of fact, determined to repudiate the agreement made by their 
Commissioners, who had pointed out how helpless they had 
been in the matter. It was their only means, they protested, 
of saving their four thousand gallant countrymen, whose 
lives were at stake. Afterwards they gave the Spanish 
Ambassador in London many reasons why the French King 
was not bound to agree to offensive clauses in the Treaty. 
" The first is that, as they were prisoners under guard all the 
time they were in Scotlend settling the terms of peace, and 
were not allowed to speak a word to the Scots or anybody 
else, they negotiated as prisoners, and are not now bound by 
anything they agreed to under duress. ... It seems to me " 
added Quadra, " that they still hope to pacify the Scots and 
calm their distrust and suspicion, in which case this Queen 
would be finely outwitted; and would see her folly in inter- 
fering in what does not concern her instead of looking to her 
own safety. She is not so gay as usual lately, and is very 
suspicious since the French Commissioners spoke to her." 1 
The clauses which Mary Stuart most strongly resented were 
those which renounced her claim to the English throne by 
abstaining henceforth from bearing the arms of England and 
Ireland. 

Humiliated by the terms of peace, and incensed by the 
religious revolution brought about by the Scottish Parlia- 
ment, which, having assembled in the following August, 
abolished the Mass and Papal jurisdiction — adopting instead 
the Calvinistic Confession of Faith — both Francis II. and 
his consort refused to ratify the Treaty. They were power- 
less, however, to prevent either the re-establishment of peace 
or the whole affairs of Scotland from falling into the hands 
of the Lords of the Congregation. The Treaty of Edinburgh 
not only ended the first bout between the rival Queens of 
England and Scotland, with a victory for Elizabeth greater 
than she realised at the time, but also sounded the death 
knell of French supremacy in Scotland, just as Elizabeth's 
accession two years previously had saved the English nation 
" body and soul," from the clutches of Spain. 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 172. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 

Dudley's Ambitious Designs — Arran's Suit Revived — A Crowd of 
Rivals — The Tragedy of Amy Robsart — Quadra's Account — 
Objections to it — Dudley sends Thomas Blount to Investigate 
— Inquest and Verdict — Dudley Disgraced but Restored to 
Favour — Public Opinion — Throckmorton Warns Elizabeth — 
Mary Stuart on her Scottish Subjects — Why she Refused to 
Ratify the Treaty of Edinburgh — Her claim to the English 
Arms — Death of Francis II. — The Grief-stricken Queen — 
Elizabeth's Opportunity — Throckmorton Told to Mind his Own 
Business — Dudley's Marriage with Elizabeth Seriously Discussed 
— Philip's Half-hearted Support — Elizabeth Declines to Receive 
the Papal Envoy — A Venetian's Portrait of Elizabeth in her 
Prime — His Picture of her England. 

The patched-up peace again brought to the front the 
insoluble problem of Elizabeth's marriage, as Cecil found 
upon returning from his arduous and thankless task in 
Scotland. Dudley had taken advantage of his absence, as 
well as of that of his more out-spoken opponent, the Duke 
of Norfolk, so to strengthen his influence over the Queen, 
and his own position at Court, as to render faithful service 
well-nigh impossible. Instead of gratitude for what he had 
reason to regard as a great diplomatic triumph Cecil found 
himself discredited and abused. To his friends he spoke 
seriously of retiring into private life. Winchester, the Lord 
Treasurer, fully sympathised with him in a letter during the 
Queen's absence on August 24. "All good Councillors," he 
wrote, " shall have labour and dolour without reward : wherein 
your part is most of all men's, for your charge and pains be 
above all others, and your thanks and rewards less, and worse 
considered .... When your counsel is most for her 
Majesty's honour and profit, the same hath got most 
hindrance by her weak credit of you, and by back counsels ; 
and so long as that manner continue it must needs be danger- 
ous service and unthankful. Nevertheless, my opinion to 
you is to bear as you have been, till her Grace returns, and 



136 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

then I shall play the part of a good servant, and do without 
fear." 1 Happily for England, as will presently be seen, a 
tragic stroke of fortune was about to happen which restored 
Cecil to favour, and he remained at his post as helmsman of 
the ship of State, which would have fared badly indeed in that 
storm-tossed sea had Elizabeth been left to steer it alone. On 
the Queen's behalf it may fairly be pleaded that the eternal 
marriage question, and the ceaseless round of unwelcome 
wooers, were, in the nature of things, enough to irritate a temper 
far more placid than that which Henry VIII. had handed down 
to her. Dudley made it easier for her than all the rest to 
enjoy the present, and let the matrimonial prospects take 
care of themselves. Quadra still kept the Archduke in the 
running in spite of her obvious insincerity. When he 
referred to him again shortly before the Treaty of Edinburgh 
was signed, she " talked all manner of nonsense, as usual, 
but I told her," as he informed Philip at the time, " that I 
knew she did not believe what she was saying, and I was 
fully informed that her real object was to make herself 
Monarch of all Britain by marrying the Earl of Arran." 2 
Quadra was not the only one to pester her by reviving the 
question of that impossible match. The Scottish lords took 
up the matter so seriously that they sent a formal proposal 
for her hand on Arran's behalf, taking the precaution at the 
same time to notify the fact to the King of France : 

THE SCOTTISH LORDS OF THE CONGREGATION 
TO FRANCIS II. 

[Teulet: " Papiers d'litat relatifs a Vhistoire d'licosse.'"] 

Edinburgh, August 31, 1560. 

Sire, 

Having regard to the condition of the realm of 
England, which is so nearly our neighbour, and also 
of its Queen, who has yet to marry and is earnestly 
solicited from all parts of Christendom, it seems to 
us, not less for your Majesty's interest than for ours, 
a matter which is worthy of consideration by the 
Parliament. It would be too great a danger to us, 

1 Haynes' Burghley Papers, p. 361. 

2 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, p. 159. 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 137 

and a very injurious matter to your Majesty, if she 
engaged to marry any prince who was not a well- 
tried friend or ally of your crown. This consideration 
has moved us to consider whether it would be possible 
for us to make such representations to her that she 
might content herself with one of your subjects, by 
which means we should remove this peril from us, 
and also do you a welcome service. By this course 
you would be assured of the good friendship of 
England ; but on the contrary, if she should happen 
to choose another, it might disturb or, at least, 
diminish it. With respect to this we have resolved 
to send there expressly to solicit her, if it be possible, 
to take in marriage the Earl of Arran. Not only is 
he nearly related to the Queen our Sovereign, but 
he is very desirous to do his humble duty unto your 
Majesty at all times, because of the home he has had 
in France from his infancy. We leave it to your 
Majesty to consider the great comfort which would 
ensue, as much to your Majesty as to your kingdom, 
if, by your means, he could attain so great an honour. 
And on this, we very humbly entreat your Majesty 
that it may please you to instruct your Ambassador 
in residence at the Court of the said Lady to assist 
with his help and counsel those who are going to do 
their part there, and to advance the cause of his 
credit and authority as much as he can ; which we 
have no doubt will be of much service. We are 
sending them in the greatest haste, because it has 
been reported to us that the Prince of Sweden is to 
be in England shortly for the same purpose, and it 
would hamper us to have a neighbour so great as 
he would be if he could combine the strength of 
England with his own. On this account we are of 
opinion that we must take time by the forelock, and 
we do not doubt that your Majesty, for love of your 
country and subjects, will also take this consideration 
in good part. And on this, Sire, after the very 
humble acknowledgment of our service and lawful 
obedience to your Majesty, we pray the Almighty 



138 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

God that He may have you in His holy and gracious 
keeping. 

The deputation to Elizabeth herself consisted of the Earls 
of Morton and Glencairn, and William Maitland of Lethington, 
the last of whom had quitted the service of Mary of Guise 
for that of her rebellious lords — realising the increasing danger 
of French predominance — and had recently played a large 
share in persuading the lords to sign the treaty of Edin- 
burgh. Elizabeth assured the deputation that Scotland might 
count on her aid in all future crises which they might be 
called upon to face ; but with regard to marriage she regretted 
that she was unable to accede to their request. This, how- 
ever, she did in terms full of friendship for the Scottish nation, 
and respect for the Earl of Arran himself. Other suitors 
from abroad, or their Ambassadors, came and went with 
tiresome persistency. These for the most part returned 
with fair words and handsome presents, for not many of 
Elizabeth's lovers were lucky enough to be so definitely 
declined as Arran. " The Duke of Holstein," wrote John 
Parkhurst to Bullinger of one of these suitors, a nephew of 
the King of Denmark, who did not wish his neighbour of 
Sweden to capture the same prize, " has returned home 
after a magnificent reception from us, with splendid presents 
from the Queen, having been elected to the Order of the 
Garter, and invested with its golden and jewelled badge. 
The Swede is reported to be always coming, and even now 
on his journey, and on the eve of landing ; yet, as far as 
I can judge, he will not stir a foot." 1 That was towards 
the end of August, when the Prince of Sweden, now Eric IV., 
was daily expected to plead on his own behalf, where his 
young brother, the Duke of Finland, whom we last saw in 
the royal gallery with Elizabeth at the tournament described 
by Noailles on p. 77, had pleaded for him in vain. Eric 
became first favourite among the royal wooers at this period. 
He had the reputation of being one of the best-looking men in 
Europe, and Elizabeth had not the same hesitation in 
accepting the shiploads of presents which he sent as earnest 
of his honourable intentions as in promising her hand without 

1 Zurich Letters. First Series. 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 139 

seeing him. The enterprising printers of the day went the 
length of publishing prints with portraits of Elizabeth and Eric 
united — to the considerable annoyance of the Queen, who had 
the portraits confiscated — and great preparations were made 
for his arrival, expected towards the end of August, or the 
beginning of September. Of this, as well as of one of 
Elizabeth's playful moods, we have evidence in the following 
letter : 

FRANCIS ALEN TO THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY. 
[Lodge's "Illustrations of British History."] 

September 3, 1560. 

The Queen's Highness upon Friday last came to 
Windsor ; and, being every hour in a continual 
expectation of the King of Sweden's coming, who is 
looked for to be shortly here at Westminster ; and 
so much the sooner as the works now there in hand 
may be finished and brought to any perfection ; 
where they work both night and day. It is reported 
that against Allhallowtide her Majesty will call a 
Parliament, and that her Highness said she would 
do so when she was at Winchester. She liked so 
well my Lord Treasurer's house, and his great cheer 
at Basing, that she openly and merrily bemoaned 
him to be so old, "for else, by my troth," said she, 
11 if my Lord Treasurer 1 were a young man, I could 
find in my heart to have him to my husband before 
any man in England." 

My poor wife, your Lordship's gossip, has her 
most humbly commended ; and your god-son, Francis, 
I thank God, waxes a jolly boy. I beseech God long 
preserve your good Lordship. 

Your good Lordship's, most bounden to command, 

Francis Alen. 

Such was the uncertainty of intelligence in those days 
that the King of Sweden, expected hourly in England, had 
by that time been driven back to Helsinborg by storms 
which nearly shipwrecked him in the Skagger Rack. Eric, 

1 The Marquess of Winchester, who was then well over seventy. 



140 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

however, assured her Majesty in his letter explaining all the 
dangers through which he had passed, that as he had 
attempted to reach her through the stormy seas " so would 
he at her first summons rush through armies of foes." If 
only she would forward a safe conduct, with certain clauses 
to the effect that he would not be compelled to agree to 
anything, and allowed to leave England when he liked, he 
would set out again in the following spring, his captains 
telling him that it would not be safe to continue the voyage 
that year. He loved her, he declared, better than himself, 
and wondered why she tormented him so long. The fault 
would not be his if the matter did not come to a good issue." 
' No one," he added, " is so stupid as to continue to love 
without being loved." x It is not difficult to picture Elizabeth 
on reading such letters passing them on to her favourite, to 
enjoy a joke together at the writer's expense. Dudley, 
however, was about to receive a check in his ambitious 
career which threatened for a time to prove his entire 
undoing. This was nothing less than the tragedy of Amy 
Robsart, whose lifeless body, with a broken neck, was found 
at the foot of a staircase at Cumnor Hall, near Oxford, on 
September 8. Dudley was with the Queen at Windsor at 
the time, but popular opinion, always ready to believe the 
worst, at once jumped to the conclusion that he had 
murdered his wife by proxy, and that Elizabeth was a 
willing accessory. There was good excuse for the suppo- 
sition, for the sinister rumours that Dudley meant to remove 
his wife in order to marry Elizabeth had been public 
property for months. That very fact, however, suggests 
the improbability of such a clumsy plot. Neither 
Elizabeth nor Dudley was thin-skinned or over-scrupulous 
in the niceties of honour ; but at the same time they were 
not fools ; and to have done the very thing which they 
must have known would recoil at once upon their own 
heads would surely have been the height of folly. The 
following letter, therefore, needs to be read with the utmost 
care, for though not so transparently full of misstatements 
as Scott's " Kenilworth " — still responsible for an incredible 
amount of popular error concerning the whole story — it 

1 Foreign Calendar, Vol. III., p. 324. 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 141 

was apparently written with intent to deceive. Quadra, 
according to Throckmorton, who was not easily hood- 
winked in such matters, was at this time in the pay of 
the Guises, and it was important from their point of view 
that Elizabeth should be so discredited that Philip and 
the Duchess of Parma would abandon her to her fate ; or 
at least enable the Treaty of Edinburgh to be repudiated : 

BISHOP QUADRA TO THE DUCHESS OF PARMA. 
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, September n, 1560. 

Since writing, news of importance is current here 
which I convey to your Highness. The Queen told 
me she was sure the French did not lack the will to 
injure her but only the power, and that they (the 
French) had not dismissed any of their troops. She 
had promised me an answer about the marriage by 
the third instant, and said she was certain to marry, 
but now she coolly tells me she cannot make up her 
mind and will not marry. After this I had an 
opportunity of talking to Cecil, who I understood 
was in disgrace, and Robert was trying to turn him 
out of his place. After exacting many pledges of strict 
secrecy, he said the Queen was conducting herself in 
such a way that he thought of retiring. He said it 
was a bad sailor who did not enter port if he could 
when he saw a storm coming on, and he clearly fore- 
saw the ruin of the realm through Robert's intimacy 
with the Queen, who surrendered all affairs to him 
and meant to marry him. He said he did not know 
how the country put up with it, and he should ask 
leave to go home, although he thought they would 
cast him into the Tower first. He ended by 
begging me in God's name to point out to the 
Queen the effect of her misconduct, and persuade 
her not to abandon business entirely but to look to 
her realm ; and then he repeated twice over to me 
that Lord Robert would be better in Paradise than 
here. 



142 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

I expressed sorrow at what he said, and reminded 
him how earnestly I had always tried to advise the 
Queen to act aright and live peacefully and marry. 
He knew how little my advice had availed, although 
the Queen willingly listened to me. I would not tire 
of well-doing however, but would take the first 
opportunity of speaking again, although I understood 
that it was hopeless to expect a peaceful settlement 
of her quarrel with the French, Cecil answered me 
in a way that seemed as if he would like to excuse 
the French. He said the Queen did not like foreigners, 
and thought she could do without them, and that she 
had an enormous debt which she would not think of 
paying. She had, therefore, lost her credit with the 
London merchants. 

He ended by saying that Robert was thinking of 
killing his wife, who was publicly announced to be 
ill, although she was quite well, and would take very 
good care they did not poison her. He said surely 
God would never allow such, a wicked thing to be 
done. I ended the conversation by again expressing 
my sorrow without saying anything to compromise 
me, although I am sure he speaks the truth and is 
not acting crookedly. The mishap of the Secretary 
must produce great effect, as he has many companions 
in discontent, especially the Duke of Norfolk, whom 
he mentioned. 

The next day the Queen told me as she returned 
from hunting that Robert's wife was dead or 
nearly so, and asked me not to say anything about 
it. Certainly this buiness is most shameful and 
scandalous, and withal I am not sure whether she will 
marry the man at once or even if she will marry at 
all, as I do not think she has her mind sufficiently 
fixed. Cecil says she wishes to do as her father 
did. 

Their quarrels cannot injure public business, as 
nobody worse than Cecil can be at the head of affairs, 
but the outcome of it all might be the imprisonment 
of the Queen and the proclamation of the Earl of 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 143 

Huntingdon 1 as King. He is a great heretic, and 
the French forces might be used for him. Cecil says 
he is the real heir of England, and all the heretics 
want him. I do not like Cecil's great friendship with 
the Bishop of Valence. Perhaps I am too suspicious, 
but with these people it is always wisest to think the 
worst. The cry is that they do not want any more 
women rulers, and this woman may find herself and 
her favourite in prison any morning. They would all 
confide in me if I mixed myself up in their affairs, but 
I have no orders, and am temporising until I receive 
your Highness' instructions. Your Highness should 
advise the King not to wait until the Queen mends 
matters. 

Since writing the above I hear the Queen has 
published the death of Robert's (wife), and, said in 
Italian, " She broke her neck." She must have 
fallen down a staircase. 

As'; Dr. Maitland says in referring to this letter in the 
" Cambridge Modern History," the sagacity of the man who 
wrote it can hardly be saved, except at the expense of his 
honesty. " Those who are inclined to place faith in this 
wonderful tale about a truly wonderful Cecil will do well to 
remember that a postscript is sometimes composed before any 
part of the letter is written." Professor Pollard regards 
Quadra's remarkable story with the same suspicion, convinced 
that the writer intended to convey the impression of Elizabeth 
and Dudley's guilt " by a deft economy of dates." The news 
of Lady Robert Dudley's death reached Windsor on the 9th, 
and Quadra's conversation with Cecil and the Queen 
probably took place after it was made known — not before, as 
he makes out. In any case, Dudley at once realised the 
danger of his position, and on the evening of the 9th 
dispatched his cousin, Thomas Blount, to make full inquiries 
on the spot : 



1 Henry Hastings, third Earl of Huntingdon, who had distant 
claims to the throne as a descendant of the Dukes of Buckingham 
and York. 



144 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

LORD ROBERT DUDLEY TO THOMAS BLOUNT. 

[Pettigrew's "Inquiry into the death of Amy Robsart."] 

Windsor, September 9, 1550. 
Cousin Blount, 

Immediately upon your departing from me there 
came to me Bowes, by whom I understand that my 
wife is dead, and, as he saith, by a fall from a pair ol 
stairs : little other understanding can I have of him. 
The greatness and the suddenness of the misfortune 
doth so perplex me, until I do hear from you how the 
matter stands, or how this evil doth light upon me, 
considering what the malicious world will bruit, as I 
can take no rest. And, because I have no way to 
purge myself of the malicious talk that I know the 
wicked world will use, but one, which is the very plain 
truth to be known, I do pray you, as you have loved 
me, and do tender me and my quietness, and as now 
my special trust is in you, that will use all devices and 
means you possibly can for the learning of the truth, 
wherein have no respect to any living person ; and as 
by your own travail and diligence, so likewise by order 
of law, I mean, by calling of the coroner, and charg- 
ing him to the uttermost, from me, to have good 
regard to make choice of no light or slight persons, 
but the most discreet and substantial men for the 
juries ; such as for their knowledge may be able to 
search honourably and duly, by all manner of examin- 
ations, the bottom of the matter ; and for their 
uprightness will earnestly and sincerely deal therein 
without respect. And that the body be viewed and 
searched accordingly by them, and in every respect 
to proceed by order and law. In the meantime, 
cousin Blount, let me be advertised from you by this 
bearer, with all speed, how the matter doth stand ; 
for, as the cause and the manner thereof doth 
marvellously trouble me, considering my case many 
ways, so shall I not be at rest till I may be ascertained 
thereof; praying you ever, as my trust is in you, and 
as I have ever loved you, do not dissemble with me, 
neither let anything be hid from me, but send me 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 145 

your true conceit and opinion of the matter, whether 
it happened by evil chance, or by villainy ; and fail 
not to let me hear continually from you. And thus 
fare you well in much haste. 

Your loving friend and kinsman, much perplexed, 

R.D. 

I have sent for my brother Appleyard, because he 
is her brother, and other of her friends also, to be 
there, that they may be privy, and see how all things 
do proceed. 

Blount lost no time in acting upon these urgent 
instructions. Here is his first report : 

THOMAS BLOUNT TO SIR ROBERT DUDLEY. 

[Pettigrew's "Inquiry into the death of Amy Robsart"] 

Cumnor, September 11, 1560. 

May it please your lordship to understand that I 
have received your letter by Brice, the contents where- 
of I do well perceive : and that your lordship was 
advertised by Bowes immediately upon my departing 
that my lady was dead. And also your straight 
charge given unto me, that I should use all the 
devices and policies that I can for the true under- 
standing of the matter ; as well by mine own travail, 
as by the order of the law, as in calling the coroner, 
giving him charge that he choose a discreet and 
substantial jury for the view of the body, and that no 
corruption should be used, or persons respected. 
Your lordship's great reasons that maketh you so 
earnestly search to learn the truth, the same with 
your earnest commandment doth make me to do my 
best herein. The present advertisement I can give to 
your lordship at this time is, too true it is that my 
lady is dead, and, as it seemeth, with a fall, but yet 
how, or which way, I cannot learn. Your lordship 
shall hear the manner of my proceeding since I came 
from you. The same night I came from Windsor, I 
lay at Abingdon all that night, and, because I was 

E.M.S. l 



146 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

desirous to hear what news went abroad in the 
county, at my supper I called for mine host, and asked 
him what news was there about, taking upon me 
that I was going into Gloucestershire. He said, 
" there was fallen a great misfortune within three or 
four miles of the town." He said, " my Lord Robert 
Dudley's wife was dead " ; and I asked how ; and he 
said, "bya misfortune, as he heard : by a fall from a 
pair of stairs." I asked him by what chance. He 
said, "he knew not." I asked him what was his 
judgment and the judgment of the people. He said, 
"some were disposed to say well, and some evil." 
" What is your judgment ? " said I. " By my troth," 
said he, " I judge it a misfortune because it chanced 
in that honest gentleman's house. His great honesty," 
said he, " doth much curb the evil thoughts of the 
people." " Methinks," said I, "that some of her 
people that waited upon her should say somewhat to 
this." " No, sir," said he, " but little ; for it was said 
that they were here at the fair, and none left with 
her." " How might that chance?" said I. Then 
said he, " it is said here that she rose that day very 
early, and commanded all her sort to go to the fair, and 
would suffer none to tarry at home." And thereof is 
much judged ; and truly, my lord, I did first learn of 
Bowes, as I met with him coming towards your lord- 
ship's, of his own being that day, and of all the rest 
of them being, who affirmed that she would not that 
day suffer one of her own sort to tarry at home ; and 
was so earnest to have them gone to the fair that, 
with any of her own sort that made reason for tarry- 
ing at home, she was very angry ; and came to Mrs. 
Odingsell, the widow, that liveth with Anthony Foster, 
who refused that day to go to the fair, and was very 
angry with her also, because she said it was no day 
for gentlewomen to go in, but said the morrow was 
much better, and then she would go ; whereupon my 
lady answered and said, "that she might choose and 
go at her pleasure, but all hers should go ; " and was 
very angry. They asked who should keep her company 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 147 

if they all went. She said, " Mrs. Owen should keep 
her company at dinner." 

The same tale doth Pinto, who doth dearly love 
her, confirm. Certainly, my lordship, as little while 
as I have been here, I have heard divers tales that 
maketh me to judge her a strange woman of mind. 
In asking of Pinto what she might think of this 
matter, either chance or villainy, she said, " By her 
faith, she doth judge it very chance, and neither done 
by man nor by herself. For herself," she said, " she 
was a good, virtuous gentlewoman, and daily would 
pray upon her knees " ; and divers times she saith 
that she hath heard her pray to God to deliver her 
from desperation. " Then," said I, " she might have 
an evil eye in her mind." " No, good Mr. Blount," said 
Pinto, " do not judge so of my words ; if you should 
so gather I am sorry I said so much." 

My lord, it is most strange that this chance should 
fall upon you, as it passeth the judgment of any man 
to say how it is ; but then the tales I do hear of her 
make me to think she had a strange mind, as I will tell 
you at my coming. But to the inquest you would 
have so very circumspectly chosen by the coroner for 
the understanding of the truth, your lordship needeth 
not to doubt of their well choosing. Before my 
coming, the inquest were chosen, and part of them 
at the house. If I be able to judge of men, and of 
their ability, I judge them, and specially some of them, 
to be as wise and as able men to be chosen on such a 
matter as any man, being but countrymen, as ever I 
saw, and as well able to answer for their doing before 
whomsoever they shall be called, and for their true 
search without respect of persons. I have done your 
message unto them, and I have good hope they will 
conceal no fault, if any be ; for as they are wise, so 
are they, as I hear, part of them very enemies to 
Anthony Foster. God give them, in their wisdom, 
indifference, and then be they well chosen men. More 
advertisement at this time I cannot give your lord- 
ship ; but as I can learn, so will I advertise, wishing 

L 2 



148 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

your lordship to put away sorrow, and rejoice, what- 
soever fall out, of your own innocency ; by the which, in 
time, doubt not but that malicious reports shall turn 
upon their back that can be glad to wish or say 
against you. And thus I humbly take my leave. 
Your lordship's life and loving 

T.B. 
Your lordship hath done very well in sending for 
Mr. Appleyard. 

Obviously the case looked black against the Queen's 
favourite with so many evil thoughts at work. The Queen 
herself deemed it necessary to rusticate him. To what 
extent he was kept in bondage is not clear from his following 
letter to Cecil, who appears to have heaped coals of fire on 
Lord Robert's head at this crisis in his affairs. It is also 
arguable, of course, that Cecil was convinced of Dudley's 
innocence, and was merely eager to be on the safe side in 
the event of his attaining, in due course, the height of his 
ambition, now that the way lay clear before him : 

LORD ROBERT DUDLEY TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 

[Haynes' " Burghley Papers."} 

September, 1560. 
Sir, 

I thank you much for your being here, and the 
great friendship you have shown towards me I shall 
not forget. I am very loath to wish you here again, 
but I would be very glad to be with you there. I 
pray you let me hear from you, what you think best 
for me to do. If you doubt, I pray you ask the 
question, for the sooner you can advise me thither, 
the more I shall thank you. I am sorry so sudden a 
chance should breed me so great a change, for 
methinks I am here all this while as it were in a 
dream, and too far, too far, from the place I am 
bound to be ; where, methinks also, this long idle 
time cannot excuse me for the duty I have to dis- 
charge elsewhere. I pray you help him that sues to 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 149 

be at liberty out of so great a bondage. Forget me 
not, though you see me not, and I will remember you, 
and fail you not ; and so wish you well to do. In 
haste this morning. 

I beseech you Sir, forget not to offer up the humble 
sacrifice you promised me. 

Your very assured, 

R. Dudley. 

There is a ring of sincerity about that letter which hardly 
lends itself to the theory of connivance on Elizabeth's part. 
Possibly, also, his "bondage" explains why Dudley did not 
himself proceed to Cumnor Hall, where, plainly, he had so 
many duties to discharge ; but his enemies infer from it that 
all the time it was the Court alone which he had in mind. 
The truth will never be known, either regarding this point, 
or the real cause of Lady Robert's tragic death. None of 
the witnesses gave any evidence to prove how she came by 
her mysterious fall downstairs, and after a full inquiry the 
only verdict possible was one of accidental death, for that, in 
point of fact, was what the verdict amounted to. Seven 
years later Amy's half-brother, John Appleyard — mentioned 
in the correspondence between Dudley and Blount — revived 
the tragedy by accusing Dudley of shielding his steward, 
Anthony Foster, whom rumour had charged with the 
murder. Appleyard had blurted out that " though he did 
take the Lord Robert to be innocent thereof, yet he thought 
it an easy matter to find out the offenders." Dudley, how- 
ever, had always answered him " it was not fit to deal any 
further in the matter, considering that by order of law it was 
already found otherwise, and that it was so presented by a 
jury." 1 Appleyard was sent to the Fleet for his indiscre- 
tions, and applied for a copy of the report recording the 
proceedings at the inquest. Having read these he wrote to 
the Council that he found therein " not only such proof, 
testified under the oath of fifteen persons, how his late sister, 
by misfortune, happened of death, but also such manifest 
and plain demonstration thereof as hath fully and clearly 
satisfied him, and therefore commending her soul to God, 

1 Hatfield MSS., Vol. I., pp. 350—1. 



150 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

he has not further to say of that cause." * How far the 
privations of the Fleet helped him to arrive at this decision 
it is hazardous to guess, but it is the more important to draw 
attention to it because Froude, who makes a point of 
Appleyard's original charges, does not refer to this recanta- 
tion. Fresh light is thrown on the incident not only in the 
Hatfield MSS., but also in the Historical Manuscripts Com- 
mission's "Report on the Pepys Manuscripts," in which 
there is a letter from Blount to the Earl of Leicester de- 
scribing in dramatic detail the alleged attempt by Leicester's 
enemies to suborn Lady Robert's brother. Appleyard, 
according to this account, was promised that he should lack 
neither gold nor silver if he would join them in charging 
Leicester with the death of his wife, and also with being 
"the only hinderer of the Queen's marriage." Appleyard 
declares that he stoutly declined, vowing that he would be 
Leicester's to death. 

As soon as the jury's verdict at the inquest was known, the 
Queen could afford to restore her favourite to favour, and it 
was not long before he took up his old position at Court. 
Neither of them appeared to care much now how the world 
regarded the affair — though the ugliest reports were spread 
abroad. " The rumours be so maliciously reported here," 
wrote Sir Nicholas Throckmorton to Cecil from Paris, 
" touching the marriage of the Lord Robert and the death 
of his wife, that I know not where to turn me, nor what 
countenance to make." 2 Annoyed at last beyond endurance 
the English Ambassador ventured the length of sending his 
Secretary, Jones, to tell Elizabeth exactly how her reputation 
was suffering abroad. Jones gives a most interesting 
account of his interview with the Queen : 

MR. R. J. JONES TO SIR NICHOLAS THROCKMORTON. 

[" Hardwicke State Papers."] 

November 30, 1560. 
Sir, 

With all the diligence I could make I arrived not 
at the Court here till Monday at night, the 25th of 

1 Hatfield MSS. I., p. 346. 

2 Hardwicke State Papers, Vol. I., p. 121. 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 151 

November, at what time I delivered my letters to Mr. 
Secretary, and attending all the next day upon him, I 
spoke not with the Queen's Majesty till Wednesday 
at night at Greenwich, whither she came to bed from 
Eltham, when she dined and hunted all that day with 
divers of my Lords. 

I had declared unto Mr. Secretary, before I spoke 
with her, the day after my arrival, the discourse of the 
Lord of St. John's, and your Lordship's opinion, 
which he willed me to put in writing, as I did. Mr. 
Secretary showed both the same to the Queen's 
Majesty, as her Highness in my talk with her told 
me. I will tell your Lordship the story, and then 
you may guess at it. There was one occasion, as 
your Lordship knoweth, in the discourse, to speak ot 
the delivery of the letters to the French King and 
Queen in favour of the Earl of Arran, when the 
French Queen said that the Queen's Majesty would 
marry the Master of her horses. The 26th of 
November all my Lords of the Council dined at the 
Scottish Ambassador's lodging, where they were very 
highly feasted. I repaired thither to show myself to 
my Lords, where, after I had attended half dinner- 
time, my Lord Robert rose up, and went to the Court, 
and in the way sent a gentleman back to will me to 
repair thither after him, as I did, after I had declared 
the message to Mr. Secretary. Being come unto 
him, he asked me whether the French Queen had 
said that the Queen's Majesty would marry her horse- 
keeper, and told me he had seen all the discourse of 
your Lordship's proceedings, together with the 
intelligence, and that Mr. Secretary told him that 
the French Queen had said so. I answered that I 
said no such matter. He laid the matter upon me 
so strong, as the author thereof being avowed, that 
I would not deny the French Queen had said that 
the Queen would marry the Master of her horses. 

This was all he said to me, and he willed me that 
I should in no case let it be known to Mr. Secretary 
that he had told me thus much, as I have not indeed, 



152 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

nor mean to do ; whereby I judge that Mr. Secretary 
did declare it only to the Queen, at whose hands my 
Lord Robert had it. The same night I spake to Mr. 
Killigrew, and having delivered your Lordship's letter, 
and told him the intelligence, he said in the end unto 
me, with, as it were, a sad look : " I think verily that 
my Lord Robert will run away with the hare, and 
have the Queen " ; to whom I answered nothing. 
Thus much I thought good to write before I came to 
speak of my proceeding with the Queen's Majesty. 

The 27th, I spoke with her Majesty at Greenwich, 
at six o'clock at night, and declared unto her the talk 
of the Ambassadors of Spain and Venice, and the 
Marquess [of Northampton] and your advice touching 
the General Council. When I had done with the 
first point of my tale, " By my troth," said she, " I 
thought it was such a matter, and he need not have 
sent you hither, for it had been more meet to have 
kept you there still." I said that if it had been 
written in cipher, it must have come to the knowledge 
of some others. " Of nobody," said she, "but of my 
Secretary ; or else he might have written it in my 
own cipher." 

When I came to touch nearer the quick, " I have 
heard of this before," quoth she, " and he need not to 
have sent you withal." I said that the care you had 
was so great that you could not but advertise her 
Majesty of such things as might touch her, and that 
you took this to be no matter to be opened but to 
herself. When I came to the point that touched his 
race [Lord Robert's ancestry], which I set forth in 
as vehement terms as the case required, and that the 
Duke's [Northumberland's] hatred had been rather to 
her than to the Queen her sister, she laughed, and 
forthwith turned herself to the one side and to the 
other, and set her hand upon her face. 

She thereupon told me that the matter [Amy 
Robsart's death] had been tried in the country, and 
found to be contrary to that which was reported, 
saying that he was then in the Court, and none of his 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 153 

at the attempt at his wife's house ; and that it fell out 
as should neither touch his honesty nor her honour. 
Quoth she : " My Ambassador knoweth somewhat of 
my mind in these matters." She heard me very 
patiently, I think the rather because I made, before I 
spake unto her Majesty, a long protestation, as 
methought I had need to do, considering that my 
Lord Robert knew thereof as much as he did. 

. . . The Queen's Majesty looketh not so hearty 
and well as she did, by a great deal ; and surely the 
matter of my Lord Robert doth much perplex her, 
and is never like to take place. The talk thereof is 
somewhat slack, as generally misliked except by the 
setters forth thereof, who are as your Lordship 
knoweth. . . . The Queen's Majesty stayeth the 
creation [of Lord Robert's Earldom]. The bills were 
made for the purpose at the day appointed. When 
they were presented, she cut them asunder with a 
knife. I can by no means learn, and yet I have talked 
with such as know much, that my Lord Robert's 
matters will go as was looked for ; and yet the 
favours be great which are shown him at the Queen's 
hands. 

Yours, etc., 

R. J. Jones. 

Elizabeth's excuse for changing her uncertain mind in the 
matter of the peerage which she herself had promised Sir 
Robert was that the Dudleys had been traitors for three 
generations. His reproaches almost led her to relent, but 
she clapped him on the cheeks with a playful " No, no, the 
bear and the ragged staff are not so soon overthrown " ; and 
Queen and favourite "were as great as ever they were," 
wrote Sir Henry Neville to Throckmorton. 1 But, he added, 
when urged to marry him she would " pup with her lips : 
she would not marry a subject . . . men would come to ask 
for my lord's grace " ; and when it was pointed out that 
she might make him a king, " that she would in no wise 
agree to." 

1 Conway MSS. 



154 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

Throckmorton had other troubles to face in Paris, besides 
the sneers of his brother diplomatists on the subject of 
his Sovereign's honour. The French King and Queen 
still refused to sign the Treaty of Edinburgh, notwithstand- 
ing their agreement beforehand to ratify whatever terms 
their Commissioners were able to make. Mary Stuart herself 
told Throckmorton what she thought of her subjects at this 
troubled period, as he reported at length to Queen Elizabeth 
in his letter of November 17 : 

" I will tell you what moveth me to refuse to ratify 
the Treaty. My subjects of Scotland do their duty in 
nothing, nor have they performed one point that 
belongeth to them. I am," quoth she, "their Queen, 
and so they call me, but they use me not so. They 
have done what pleaseth them, and though I have 
not many faithful there, yet those few that be there 
of my party, were not present when these matters 
were done, nor at this assembly. I will have them 
assemble by my authority, and proceed in their doings 
after the laws of the realm, which they so much boast 
of, and keep none of them. They have sent hither a 
poor gentleman to me, who I disdain to have come 
in the name of them all in such a legation. They 
have sent great personages to your Mistress. I am 
their Sovereign, but they take me not so. They must 
be taught to know their duties." * 

The exact position of affairs is further stated by Throck- 
morton in the following letter to the English Ambassador in 
Spain : 

SIR NICHOLAS THROCKMORTON TO SIR THOMAS 
CHAMBERLAIN. 

[Wright's " Queen Elizabeth and her Times."'] 

November 21, 1560. 

... I wrote unto you of the coming hither of the 
Lord of St. John of Jerusalem, of Scotland, sent from 
the nobility and people of Scotland to perform such 
things in the name of them all as were articulated and 

1 Hardwicke State Papers. 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 155 

accorded upon in their late Treaty, made between the 
Commissioners of this side and them : and also there- 
upon to demand of this King and Queen the ratifica- 
tion of the said agreement, according to his commission 
and instructions ; the copies whereof I send you 
herewith that you may well understand the same, 
and proceed the more soundly therein, whensoever 
you shall have occasion moved you. The said Lord 
of St. John's hath been with the said Princes, with 
whom he hath proceeded according to his directions, 
and hath demanded the ratification. At his first 
coming he was much made of, and many things 
promised him ; but after a few days not so much. 
To the demand of the French King and Queen's 
ratification of the Treaty, answer was made him that 
for as much as the Scots had in no part performed 
that which belonged to good subjects, but had 
assembled themselves upon their own authority, 
without the consent of the King and Queen their 
sovereigns : the same Treaty ought not to be regarded, 
and therefore they would not ratify it. The further 
reasons why, they would not tell him, but concluded 
that the King and Queen would send two gentlemen 
into Scotland to declare their griefs and reasons why 
they thought not meet to ratify the said accord. And 
so he standeth upon his dispatch away from hence 
homeward with this answer. 

Among other things these Princes here are not a 
little grieved that such a solemn legation is sent into 
England, and that there is but one sent hither, and 
he in post ! There are come into England from the 
estates of Scotland, the Earls of Morton and Glen- 
cairn, and the Lord of Lethington, to visit her 
Majesty, and to give her thanks ; which is the 
legation that is above spoken of. Another reason 
that they find why they are not bound to ratify the 
said Scottish Treaty is, that the same was made with 
such and of such as were rebels, and bore arms 
against their sovereigns, and therefore not to be 
observed ; and that his commission and instructions 



156 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

were subscribed by the same rebels, and of few of 
their good subjects. And yet the few names of such 
few good subjects as were set to, were not of their 
own hands, but counterfeited by other. Among other, 
these frivolous devices were found out to refuse them 
their ratification. 

About the time of this said Ambassador's negotia- 
tion about these matters, I received letters from the 
Queen's Majesty, with commandment to demand soon 
of this King and Queen their ratification of the 
late Treaty made also in Scotland, between 
her Majesty and the French Commissioners, which 
had been long delayed, for that the Scots (these men 
said) had then yet sent nobody to perform things on 
their behalfs. The Scottish Ambassador therefore 
having been at the Court, and done his legation, upon 
whose coming was all our stay, and therefore I 
hoping to have no further delay therein, I resorted 
to the King and performed mine instructions and 
commandment, in renewing the demand of the said 
ratification of our Treaty. Answer was made me both 
by the King and Queen, the Cardinal of Lorraine, 
and Duke of Guise, in the same sort as had been 
made before to the Lord of St. John's. Adding 
thereto, that forasmuch as our Treaty depended upon 
the Scots' Treaty, and because the Scots had not 
performed all things on their part : like as the King 
was not bound to nor ought to ratify a Treaty made 
by his subjects without the consent of their sovereign, 
specially their not observing their duties of obedience 
towards him promised therein : so was there no cause 
the King should ratify ours, till the Scots had per- 
formed all things on their behalf. And so they have 
plainly refused to ratify our said Treaty, and spared 
not to utter, in good terms, that the Scots must be 
taught to know their duties, and to assemble in their 
sovereigns' names, and not in their own, as though 
they would make it a republic. And that rather than 
the King will suffer these disorders, he will quit all. 
They stick now much upon a league that is between 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 157 

the Queen's Majesty and the realm of Scotland. 
And till that be broken, (which I trust is not meant 
to be,) I perceive they will be at no better point 
with us. 

As for the leaving the bearing of the Queen's 
Majesty's arms, which they use yet still in open 
shows and entries of towns, whereof was spoken at 
this audience, and told that by the said treaty the 
King should leave so to do : that was answered that 
till a treaty be ratified it is no Treaty : and therefore 
there is no reason why the King and Queen should 
sooner satisfy than be satisfied. And that the King 
hath borne the arms of long time, and not without 
reason and title to do so. And that therefore there 
is no cause why he should leave his right. These, 
with divers like purposes sounding all to be defences 
and cavils not to ratify our Treaty, were used to me 
at this last negotiation. 

Wherein I could not alter their moods for any 
allegations nor objections that I could use, but rather 
understand their intents of revenge, than will to 
quietness. It is strange to see how little princes of 
honour pass for their promises and authentic obliga- 
tions. In the French King and Queen's Commission 
given to Messieurs de Valence and Randan, they 
promised bona fide et verbo regio to perform and ratify 
all that his deputies should agree upon : as you may 
see by the same : the copy whereof I also send you 
herewith. 

These Scots that the French King and Queen 
make exceptions unto, are the very same that the 
accord and agreement were made with now at Edin- 
burgh. These doings, my Lord Ambassador, are far 
from the terms that we were in, when our men were 
before Leith, and our navy strong on the sea. There 
can be no more evident declaration of meanings and 
these men's intents (when time and means will serve) 
to put us in remembrance of things past, unless they 
should have bid me to have retired myself hence 
indeed. . . . 



158 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

It was not long after this that the blow was dealt which, 
within a few months of her mother's death, was to rob Mary 
of husband as well. The French Court was now at Orleans 
holding a high court of justice there in a vain attempt to 
crush heresy by a policy of extermination. Towards the end 
of November all these plans were upset by the illness of 
the King, beginning with a sudden attack of extreme cold, 
accompanied by fever, " an indisposition," wrote the Venetian 
Ambassador in France, " to which he is subject, and said to 
have inherited from his father and grandfather. . . . His 
Majesty is still suffering from this malady, and though his 
health continues to improve he is not yet free from fever, 
this being its fourth day, and he not only does not quit the 
house or his chamber, but not even his bed, no one being 
admitted to see him but those most intimate with him. The 
cause of this accident is supposed to be the sudden change 
of weather, from extreme mildness like that of spring to 
bitter and excessive cold, against which the King took no 
precaution, and he is now made to remain in bed, much to 
his regret, the Queen Mother willing it so, more from the 
fear which arises from too much female tenderness than 
from any need, as if this malady had befallen a private 
individual, not only would he not have remained in bed, but 
have gone wherever he pleased and where his presence was 
needed; but with kings and great princes, who personally 
are of great consequence, their slightest indisposition is held 
in account." * 

With the poor constitution which Francis had to fight 
against it, however, the illness was more dangerous than 
Surian imagined. Its course can be followed in detail in the 
dispatches of the various Ambassadors until its fatal termina- 
tion on December 5, when " it pleased our Lord God," to 
quote from the same correspondent, " that the most Christian 
King should pass to a better life." 2 He left, wrote Throck- 
morton to Elizabeth, " as heavy and dolorous a wife as of 
right she had good cause to be, who, by long watching 
with him during his sickness, and painful diligence about 
him, and specially by the issue thereof, is not in best tune 

1 Venetian Calendar: Vol. VII., p. 269. 

2 Ibid., p. 276. 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 159 

of her body, but without danger." 1 The French crown 
descended to her young brother-in-law, Charles Duke of 
Orleans, " a youth," wrote Surian, " ten years of age, of 
handsome presence, gracious, and high and noble spirited," 
whom all the courtiers hurried to congratulate the moment 
that Francis had breathed his last. " So by degrees," added 
the Venetian, " everyone will forget the death of the late 
King except the young Queen, his widow, who being no less 
noble minded than beautiful and graceful in appearance, the 
thoughts of widowhood at so early an age, and of the loss of 
a consort who was so great a King, and who so dearly loved 
her, and also that she is dispossessed of the Crown of France, 
with little hope of recovering that of Scotland, which is her 
sole patrimony and dower, so afflict her that she will not 
receive any consolation, but, brooding over her disasters 
with constant tears and passionate and doleful lamentations, 
she universally inspires great pity." 2 

Throckmorton himself, though he told Elizabeth that she 
had cause to thank God for His mercies in taking away both 
the late King of France and his father, "considering their inten- 
tions towards her," was moved to admiration of Mary's conduct 
when she withdrew from the public gaze immediately upon 
her husband's death, according to the ancient custom which 
required the widowed Queens of France to put on a loose 
robe de chambre and mourn for forty days in a darkened 
room : 

SIR N. THROCKMORTON TO LORD ROBERT DUDLEY. 
[Wright's "Queen Elizabeth and her Times."] 

Orleans, December 31, 1560. 

Since the death of the late King things proceed 
here in such sort as those that were worst affected 
to the Queen's Majesty, and most desirous to trouble 
her realm, shall not have so good and ready means 
to excuse their malice, as they had in the late 
King's time. And yet, my lord, this I trust shall be 
no occasion to make her Majesty less considerate, or 
her counsel less provident, for assuredly the Queen of 

1 Foreign Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. III., p. 421. 

2 Venetian Calendar: Vol. VIL, p. 278. 



160 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

Scotland, her Majesty's cousin, doth carry herself so 
honourably, advisedly, and discreetly, as I cannot but 
fear her progress. Methinketh it were to be wished 
of all wise men and her Majesty's good subjects, that 
the one of these two Queens of the Isle of Britain 
were transformed into the shape of a man, to make 
so happy a marriage as thereby there might be an 
unity of the whole isle and their appendants. Who- 
soever is conversant in stories, shall well perceive 
estates have by no one thing grown so great, and 
lasted in their greatness, as by marriages, which have 
united countries that do confine together. 

The depth of Mary's grief is sounded in her own pitiful 
words in her letter to the King of Spain, written either at the 
end of this year or the beginning of 1561 : 

MARY STUART TO PHILIP II. 
I" Letters of Mary Queen of Scots " : Strickland.] 

To the King of Spain. 

Monsieur my good brother, — I was unwilling to 
omit this opportunity of writing to you, to thank 
you for the polite letters you sent me by Signor Don 
Antonio, and for the civil things which he and your 
Ambassador said to me concerning the sorrow you 
felt for the death of the late King, my lord, assuring 
you, monsieur my good brother, that you have 
lost in him the best brother you ever had and 
that you have comforted by your letters the most 
afflicted poor woman under heaven ; God having 
bereft me of all that I loved and held dear on earth, 
and left me no other consolation whatever but when 
I see those who deplore his fate and my too great 
misfortune. God will assist me, if he pleases, to bear 
what comes from him with patience ; as I confess 
that, without his aid, I should find so great a calamity 
too insupportable for my strength and my little virtue. 
But, knowing that it is not reasonable you should be 
annoyed by my letters, which can only be filled with 
this melancholy subject, I will conclude, after beseech- 




[Photo, Mansell 
MARY STUART IN WIDOW'S DRESS 
After the portrait by Francois Clouet in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 161 

ing you to be a good brother to me in my affliction, 
and to continue me in your favour, to which I affec- 
tionately commend myself ; praying God to give you 
monsieur my good brother, as much happiness as I 
wish you. 

Your very good sister and cousin, 

Mary. 

With the accession of the boy king, Charles IX., the 
destinies of France fell into the hands of Catherine de' 
Medici, the King of Navarre, and England's old ally, the 
Constable Montmorenci. No love was lost between them 
and the widowed Mary, daughter as she was of the despotic 
House of Guise, whose changing fortunes may be traced in 
the correspondence of the period immediately after Francis' 
death. The Calvinists were released from the prisons, a 
General Council was planned at which England, France and 
Germany should unite to give peace to Europe through the 
" true religion," and everything, as Throckmorton saw it, 
promised well for England and the Reformation, if only Eliza- 
beth would seize this golden opportunity and not ruin it by 
her scandalous relations with Dudley : 

SIR NICHOLAS THROCKMORTON TO SIR WILLIAM 

CECIL. 

[Froude's "History of England."] 

December 31, 1560. 

The House of Guise presently does seem here to 
bear small rule. The countenance and hope they have 
is of the King of Spain, who for religion and other 
respects, it is thought will help to stay their credit as 
much as he may. The principal managingof the affairs 
doth seem to be chiefly in the hands of the Queen- 
mother, the King of Navarre, and the Constable ; and, 
as the King of Spain will earnestly travail to suppress 
religion, so is it most safe for her Majesty and her best 
policy, to be as diligent to advance it. I do well see 
you will do the wise and good offices that are neces- 
sary to be done, and that may be done. The true 
religion is very like to take place in France, and so 

E.M.S. M 



162 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

consequently throughout all Europe where Christianity 
is received. I did of late address myself to the 
Admiral, who for his virtue and wisdom is much 
esteemed. I do find by him that if the Queen's 
Majesty will put an earnest mind and hand to this 
matter, it will be here well accepted, and will work 
very good effect. We talked of many particularities. 
He thinks that the General Council cannot take place ; 
but that the King must assemble a national council, 
whereunto, if her Majesty would send some learned 
men, he does not doubt but all shall be well. 

But if her Majesty do so foully forget herself in her 
marriage as the bruit runneth here, never think to 
bring anything to pass either here or elsewhere. I 
would you did hear the lamentations, the declamations, 
and sundry affections, which have course here for that 
matter. Sir, do not forget yourself as to think you do 
enough because you do not further the matter. Re- 
member your mistress is young and subject to affec- 
tions ; you. are her sworn councillor and in great 
credit with her. You know there be some of your 
colleagues which have promoted the matter. There 
is nobody reputed of judgment and authority that 
doth to her Majesty disallow it, for such as be so 
wise as to mislike it be too timorous to show it ; so 
as her Majesty's affection doth rather find wind and 
sail to set it forward than any advice to quench it. 
My duty to her, my goodwill to you, doth thus move 
me to speak plainly . . . Sir, after I had written thus 
much the ambassador of Spain came to visit me ; who 
did, amongst other matters, earnestly require me to 
tell him whether the Queen's Majesty was not secretly 
married to the Lord Robert : for, said he, I assure 
you this Court is full of it ; and, whatever any man 
doth make your mistress to believe, assure yourself 
that there never was princess so overseen, if she do 
not give order in that matter betimes. The bruits of 
her doings, said he, be very strange in all Courts and 
countries. 

Throckmorton's only reward was a plain hint from Cecil 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 163 

to mind his own business. " I must advise you," he wrote 
on January 15, in answer to the above letter, " not to meddle 
with the matters of this Court, otherwise than ye may be 
well advised from hence. What her Majesty will determine 
to do, only God I think knoweth ; and in her His will be 
fulfilled. Writings remain, and coming into adverse hands 
may be sinisterly interpreted on the other part ; servants 
or messengers may be reporters to whom they list, and 
therefore I cannot safely give you so plain counsel as I wish ; 
but, in one word I say contend not where victory cannot 
be had." 1 He added, however, that he realised the excep- 
tional chance now offered of spreading in France that cause 
which they both professed — " The knowledge of Christ 
against the anti-Christ of Rome. . . . Now is the time 
for Calvin and all such noble men as have fetched their 
knowledge thence, to impugn and suppress the tyranny 
of the Papists." 2 The perils of the new situation were 
fully realised by the Spanish Ambassador in London, a 
fact which probably explains why, after being deceived so 
often before, he allowed himself to be taken into the 
matrimonial confidences of Dudley and his apparently 
infatuated Queen. Lord Robert's move was a counterstroke 
to the renewed suit of Eric of Sweden, now being pressed 
so urgently upon the Queen by Cecil and his Protestant 
friends that the favourite was forced to bring matters to 
a crisis. What Elizabeth was really aiming at is beyond 
human comprehension, the most plausible theory being that 
she was merely procrastinating, knowing full well that time 
was her most valuable ally, and that she could always change 
her mind before it was too late : 

BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II. 
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

January 22, 1561. 

Since writing the enclosed letter Henry Sidney, 
who is the brother-in-law of Lord Robert, came to 
see me. He is a sensible man and better behaved 
than any of the courtiers. He began by beating 

1 Froude. 

2 Foreign Calendar : Elizabeth, III., p. 498. 

M 2 



164 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

about the bush very widely, but at last came to his 
brother-in-law's affairs, and said that as the matter 
was now public property, and I knew how much 
inclined the Queen was to the marriage, he wondered 
that I had not suggested to your Majesty this oppor- 
tunity for gaining over Lord Robert by extending 
a hand to him now, and he would thereafter serve 
and obey your Majesty like one of your own vassals, 
and a great deal more to the same effect. I told 
him that what I had so far heard of this matter was 
of such a character that I had hardly ventured to 
write two lines to your Majesty about it, nor had 
either the Queen or Lord Robert ever said a word 
to me that I could write. I said, moreover, that 
your Majesty had no more need to gain over the 
Kings of England than they to gain over your 
Majesty, although, in matters of courtesy to your 
friends your Majesty always exceeded ; but in this 
affair your Majesty had no means of guessing the 
thoughts of the Queen, and she had not hitherto 
taken the advice you had given her, so that there 
was no opportunity of offering advice again. We 
discussed this for some time and he entirely agreed 
with everything I said, being well informed of what 
had happened in the past, unblinded by prejudice, 
and a man who sees things in their proper light. 
He said that if I was satisfied about the death of 
Robert's wife, he saw no other reason why I should 
hesitate to write the purport of this conversation to 
your Majesty, as, after all, although it was a love 
affair, yet the object of it was marriage, and that 
there was nothing illicit about it, or such as could 
not be set right by your Majesty's authority. As 
regards the death of the wife, he was certain that it 
was accidental, and he had never been able to learn 
otherwise, although he had inquired with great care 
and knew that public opinion held to the contrary. 
I told him if what he said were true the evil was 
less, for, if murder had been committed, God would 
never help nor fail to punish so abominable a crime, 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 165 

whatever men might do to mend it, but that it would 
be difficult for Lord Robert to make things appear 
as he represented them. He answered it was quite 
true that no one believed it, and that even preachers 
in the pulpits discoursed on the matter in a way that 
was prejudicial to the honour and interests of the 
Queen, which had prevented her from taking steps 
to remedy the religious disorders of the country, and 
reduce it to a better condition, in which task Lord 
Robert would help her. I replied that although your 
Majesty would be very glad to see religion restored 
in the country and elsewhere, this was a matter 
which the Queen ought not to mix up with temporal 
affairs, but treat it simply as a question between 
herself and her God, to be diligently undertaken by 
her whether she was married or single, if she were 
a Christian at all. He agreed with this also, and 
although he is not at all well informed on religious 
questions, he did not fail to admit that the state of 
the country was very bad, and a way must be found 
to mend it. 

He told me a number of things in this respect 
which grieved me, and endeavoured to persuade me 
with solemn oaths that the Queen and Lord Robert 
were determined to restore religion by means of a 
general Concilio. He then pressed me still further 
to write to your Majesty and forward the business, 
so that Lord Robert should receive the boon from 
your Majesty's hands. I said he knew what happened 
with his wife in the matter of the Archduke when 
the Queen had deceived both of us, and that I could 
not venture to write unless the Queen authorised me 
to do so, and told me what to say ; in which case it 
would be my duty. He said the Queen would not 
mention the matter to me unless I began the con- 
versation, but that I might be sure that she desired 
nothing more than the countenance of your Majesty 
to conclude the match, and that Lord Robert himself 
would come to me and beg me to write to your 
Majesty what I heard from him, and assure you of 



166 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

his desire to serve you at all times and in all things, 
to the full extent of his means and abilities, and more 
especially regarding religion, as is his duty. I told 
him again there was no need to bring the religious 
question into these transactions, and that if Lord 
Robert wanted to open his heart on this point to 
your Majesty I did not prevent him, but at the same 
time, although it was just and necessary that he 
should try to relieve his conscience, yet, if he wished 
to negotiate with your Majesty, and expected to be 
believed and held as an honest man, I thought it 
improper that he should bring in the question of 
religion at all. He (Sidney) also asked me whether 
I thought that the Queen should send a person of 
rank to treat of this matter with your Majesty, and 
satisfy you as to any points in which your Majesty 
desired satisfaction. The antecedents of the present 
ambassador were such that the Queen could not 
trust him in this business, and particularly as regarded 
religion, as he is a very great heretic. I said she 
could do as she thought best, but we would consider 
the matter, and I would tell Lord Robert my opinion 
when I had heard what he had to say. I imagine 
that Sidney himself is desirous of going, so as to 
take the opportunity of seeing the Countess de Feria, 
who is his niece. We parted with the understanding 
that they would both come and see me in a few days. 
The above is exactly what passed, and for some 
days I had suspected that the Queen had some such 
idea, but as the business is altogether such a bad 
one, I did not venture to broach the subject to them, 
and simply remained quiet and gave the answers 
I have related. I thought best moreover to listen 
to what they said and to advise your Majesty thereof, 
so as not to arouse any suspicion in their minds, or 
perchance to cause them to take some bad course in 
their business. It is for your Majesty to decide, but 
I have no doubt that if there is any way to cure 
the bad spirit of the Queen, both as regards religion 
and your Majesty's interests, it is by means of this 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 167 

marriage, at least whilst her desire for it lasts. I 
am also sure that, if your Majesty's support fail her, 
your Majesty could easily turn her out of her kingdom 
by means of her own subjects. I well know the state 
of this affair and the feeling of the people, and I am 
certain that if she do not obtain your Majesty's consent 
she will not dare to publish the match, and it is 
possible that if she finds herself unable to obtain 
your Majesty's favour, she may throw herself to the 
bad and satisfy her desires, by which she is governed 
to an extent that would be a grievous fault in a person 
of any condition, much more in a woman of her rank. 
Things have reached such a pitch that her chamber- 
lain has left her, and Axele of the Privy Chamber 
(Yaxley ?) is in prison for having babbled : indeed 
there is not a man who has not some tale to tell. 
Cecil is he who most opposed the business, but he 
has given way in exchange for the offices held by 
Treasurer Parry, who died recently of sheer grief. 
I must not omit to say also that the common opinion, 
confirmed by certain physicians, is that this woman 
is unhealthy, and it is believed certain that she will 
not have children, although there is no lack of people 
who say she has already had some, but of this I have 
seen no trace and do not believe it. This being the 
state of things, perhaps some step may be taken in 
your Majesty's interests towards declaring as successor 
of the Queen, after her death, whoever may be most 
desirable for your Majesty. 

Quadra's words must not be taken literally. Elizabeth's 
position, though insecure, was far from being so desperate 
as he wanted Philip to believe ; and Cecil had not " given 
way." Having discovered the intrigue with Quadra the 
Queen's sagacious secretary — always a tower of strength at 
the critical moment — affected acquiescence in order the more 
effectually to bring it to naught, though the way thereto, as 
he afterwards told Throckmorton, " was full of crooks." 
The Ambassador presently had an opportunity of finding 
out from Dudley and the Queen themselves how matters 
appeared to stand with them : 



168 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

February 23, 1561. 

On the 22nd ultimo I informed your Majesty of 
Henry Sidney's interview with me in Lord Robert's 
business, and I have delayed giving them an answer 
about it because they, on their side, have delayed 
addressing me further on the matter, the cause of this 
being, as far as I can learn, that the Queen does not 
commend her affairs to your Majesty out of any wish 
or good will of her own, but forced thereto by the 
persuasion of Lord Robert, who knows the peril in 
which they stand, and sees clearly that, without the 
favour of your Majesty, they can hardly ensure them- 
selves against a rising in the country, or suppress one 
should it occur. I believe the Queen would, never- 
theless, have done ere this as Robert urges her if it 
had not been for the interference of Paget, who, 
knowing her humour, has advised her to hold her 
hand until she can make a firm peace and alliance 
with France, when she could treat with your Majesty 
more advantageously. This has been the reason for 
her having changed her mind about sending Peter 
Mewtas, who was to have gone to France simply 
with a message of condolence for the death of the 
King, and she has now decided to send the Earl of 
Bedford with instructions to ask for the ratification of 
the peace, and, when this has been obtained, to 
endeavour to bring about a good understanding and 
alliance with Vendome and the heretics of the French 
Court. I do not know what will come of this, but 
Guido Cavalcanti, who left Paris on the 15th with a 
dispatch from the Earl, says that he expects that this 
time the misunderstandings between the French and 
the Queen will be ended for ever. These transactions 
have thus delayed the affair about which Sidney 
spoke to me at the instance of Lord Robert, and as 
he (Sidney) believes with the connivance of the Queen. 
Finally, however, on the 13th, Robert and I met in 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 169 

the presence of Sidney, and, after he had repeated all 
that Sidney had told me, and thanked me with a great 
many compliments and humble words for the answer 
I had sent, he besought me, in your Majesty's name, 
to commend the Queen to marry him, and he would 
promise to render your Majesty all the service his 
brother-in-law had told me, and very much more. I 
answered him, that as your Majesty had had no 
information on this subject until now, you had not 
had an opportunity of giving me instructions with 
regard to it ; so that I could not address the Queen in 
your Majesty's name without grave error, but what I 
could and would do with great pleasure wasto act under 
my previous instructions, and request the Queen to 
make up her mind to marry and settle the succession, 
and, if during the conversation any particular person 
should be discussed, I would speak of him (Lord 
Robert) as favourably as he could wish, and I would 
venture to do this for him, knowing the affection 
and good will your Majesty has always borne him. 

He seemed very well satisfied with this, as he must 
have expected that I should not answer him in this 
way, and he begged me to speak to the Queen at once. 
I did so two days afterwards, and told her she already 
knew how much your Majesty wished to see her 
married, and her government firmly and tranquilly 
established, and the various efforts you had made to 
that end, and that as I now heard that the matter was 
under discussion, I could not refrain from expressing to 
her my pleasure thereat. I also said that, whenever 
she thought necessary to consult your Majesty on the 
subject, I would use all diligence to carry out what 
was entrusted to me, and if on this occasion I did not 
particularise more clearly, it was because I had no 
special orders from your Majesty, who had not been 
informed of what was passing. After much circum- 
locution she said she wished to confess to me and 
tell me her secret in confession, which was that she 
was no angel, and did not deny that she had some 
affection for Lord Robert for the many good qualities 



170 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

he possessed, but she certainly had never decided to 
marry him or anyone else, although she daily saw 
more clearly the necessity for her marriage, and to 
satisfy the English humour that it was desirable that 
she should marry an Englishman, and she asked me 
to tell her what your Majesty would think if she 
married one of her servitors, as the Duchess of 
Suffolk 1 and the Duchess of Somerset 2 had done. 
I told her I could not say what your Majesty would 
think, as I did not know and had not thought of 
asking, but that I promised her I would use all 
diligence to learn as soon as she told me to write to 
your Majesty about it, and I quite believed that your 
Majesty would be pleased to hear of her marriage 
with whomever it might be, as it was so important 
to her and her kingdom, and I also knew that your 
Majesty would be happy to hear of the advancement 
and aggrandizement of Lord Robert, as I understood 
that your Majesty had great affection for him and 
held him in high esteem. She seemed as pleased at 
this as her position allowed her to be. She told me 
when the time arrived she would speak to me, and 
promised me to do nothing without the advice and 
countenance of your Majesty. I did not care to 
carry the matter further for fear of making a mistake, 
although she would have been glad to have done so. 
I had no instruction from your Majesty on the subject, 
and I did not wish, knowing her character, to refuse 
to give her this little pleasure and hope, for fear 
otherwise that she might be impelled to rush into 
some foolish course, seeing that she is so infatuated, 
and the heretics of Germany, France, and Scotland 
are busy here with their insolence and their combina- 

1 This may refer either to Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, daughter 
of Charles Brandon by Mary Tudor, Dowager Queen of France ; 
who, after the execution of her husband, Henry Grey, Marquess of 
Dorset and Duke of Suffolk (1554), married her steward, Adrian 
Stokes ; or to Catharine, Lady Willoughby d'Eresby in her own 
right, widow of Charles Brandon, who married a gentleman in her 
household, Robert Bertie. — Hume. 

2 Anne Stanhope, second wife of the Protector Somerset, who was 
married to Mr. Francis Newdigate. — Hume. 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 171 

tions, and above all because your Majesty's 
neighbouring states are so pressed that a froward 
decision of this woman might prejudice them, although 
she herself might be ruined by it. 

Robert came the next day to thank me, and 
repeated to me all the details of what I had said to 
the Queen, who, he told me, was much pleased, and 
he begged me in the next interview to revert to the 
subject, as he knew that it was only fear and timidity 
that prevented the Queen from deciding. He again 
made me great promises, and assured me that every- 
thing should be placed in your Majesty's hands, and> 
even as regarded religion, if the sending of a repre- 
sentative to the Concilio did not suffice, he would go 
himself. I again repeated to him that I would do 
everything I could, as indeed I had done, to forward 
his suit, so far as was justified by your Majesty's 
Commission to me, but with regard to religion I 
begged him not to speak to me about it on any 
account, as that should not be dependent upon other 
matters, and what he and the Queen did about it did 
not concern your Majesty, but their own conscience. 
It was true, I said, that as a prince who is Catholic 
both in style, and in fact, nothing would give your 
Majesty greater pleasure than to see the end of these 
divisions and dissensions in religion. I am thus 
cautious with these people because if they are playing 
false, which is quite possible, I do not wish to give 
them the opportunity of saying that we offered them 
your Majesty's favour in return for their changing 
their religion, as they say other similar things to 
make your Majesty disliked by the heretics here and 
in Germany. If they are acting straightforwardly, a 
word from your Majesty in due time will do more than 
I can now do with many. Your Majesty knows these 
people and the individuals, and has learnt from my 
letters and Dr. Turner's statements in Flanders the 
real state of affairs here. I therefore beg that your 
Majesty may be pleased to send me orders as to what 
I should do, and I cannot refrain from saying that 



172 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

for reasons which are notoriously in your Majesty's 
interest, affairs here must be mended one way or 
another, and this can be more easily done now than 
at any other time, either by your Majesty showing 
favour to Robert and bringing him to some terms 
advantageous for your Majesty's objects, and the 
stability of the country, or else by protecting their 
opponents, and helping them against these people, 
who have been such bad neighbours to your Majesty, 
and who will every day become worse. To let these 
affairs drift at the mercy of chance neither secures 
nor punishes, and cannot fail to produce evil disservice 
to your Majesty. If in saying this I transgress the 
bounds of my duty I crave your Majesty's pardon for 
allowing my zeal to make me forget my prudence. 
I am not alone in my opinion, as this is the universal 
theme of all the goodly people in the kingdom, and 
all who wish for your Majesty's advantage. 

The Duke of Norfolk is on very bad terms with the 
Queen. Lord Robert sent word to him the other day 
that he had heard that the Duke's servants were 
declaring that he was Robert's enemy, and he wished 
to know whether this was true, and, if it were not, 
that the servants should be punished. The Duke 
sent a gentleman of his household named Nicholas 
Stranger with his excuses, and the affair has been 
patched up, but there is no certainty that some 
trouble may not arise from it. It appears to me 
that the Queen is angry with him (Norfolk) alone, 
and is determined to humble him when she can ; and 
indeed she gave me to understand as much herself 
without naming the Duke. He, on his side, is full of 
boasts, although I do know how it will turn out 
when he has to carry them into effect. 

The cautious Philip was ready enough to help Dudley on 
the lines suggested, but, as he explained in his reply to 
Quadra, it was advisable first to let them put their proposals 
in writing, and also give some concrete proof of their sincerity 
in the matter of religion : 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 173 

PHILIP II. TO BISHOP QUADRA. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

Toledo, March 17, 1561. 

... As I am so deeply concerned and wish so 
earnestly to find a remedy for the religious evils of 
the country, I was glad to read the account you sent 
of what had passed between Sidney and you about 
Lord Robert, and the benefits which might arise to 
religion if we were to favour and protect him in his 
suit with the Queen, and although, so far as we can 
see, the discussion did not rest upon much foundation, 
and we do not know what had passed between Lord 
Robert and you, yet, as our principal aim is directed 
to the service of our Lord, the maintenance of religion 
and the settlement and pacification of the country, 
and as we see that Sidney's proposals tend to this 
end, and further bearing in mind that God, if He so 
wills, can extract good from great evils, we have 
decided that the negotiation suggested by Sidney 
should be listened to. You will not only listen to 
him and willingly enter into the subject when he 
speaks of it, but try also to lead the matter on to a 
more solid basis, as for instance, by bringing the 
Queen and Lord Robert into it, and getting in writing 
and signed by her whatever the Queen may wish to 
be proposed to you. This is necessary, as her words 
are so little to be depended upon, and you know by the 
experience you have had of her that this is always the 
course she pursues when she has no intention of ful- 
filling what she says, and only wishes to use our 
authority for her own designs and intentions. You 
will therefore be very alert and cautious in this 
negotiation, warned by what has been the result of 
previous negotiations. 

When the discussion is in progress it will be well 
to make them understand that, in order to gain our 
good will and obtain our aid in what they so much 
desire, it will be necessary that the Queen should give 
some signs of what she wants and aims at. Since she 



174 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

has been Queen she has never yet done anything 
according to our advice, or for our satisfaction towards 
the amending of religion, or the pacification of her 
kingdom, and what she might now do is to liberate 
the prelates and other Catholics she has imprisoned, 
agree to send her Ambassadors and Catholic bishops 
to the Concilio, and submit herself unconditionally to 
its decisions. Besides this she should, pending the 
resolutions of the Concilio, allow Catholics to live as 
they please without coercion or violence, and in view 
of such action we should soon see whether she was 
sincere in this business or only sought her private 
ends. . . . There is only to add that if on opening 
the discussion they desire to know whether you are 
treating with our knowledge and consent, you must 
judge if the affair looks solid and promising ; and, in 
such case, or if you think necessary in order that they 
may make the preparations required to carry their 
intentions into effect, you may opportunely tell them 
that you give ear to them with our full authority and 
good will. This is the course we think should be 
followed in the negotiations, and we leave the manner 
and form of carrying out our wishes to your prudence 
and zeal, which we are sure will enable you to fulfil 
the task fittingly. In the conversations you may have 
with Sidney and Lord Robert you had better give 
them to understand that I have the same good will 
towards the latter as I ever had, and take every 
opportunity you may see to express affection and 
attachment to him, so as to forward the affair by this 
means. . . . 

His Holiness writes us that he has appointed the 
Abbe Martinengo to carry the bull of the Concilio to 
the Queen, and has given him orders, when he arrives 
in Flanders, to be governed by the directions of the 
Bishop of Arras. I have written to the latter not to 
let him pass until he sees what progress is being 
made with Sidney's negotiations, because if these look 
promising preparations could duly be made for giving 
it (the bull) a better reception, and with hope of more 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 175 

fruitful result. You will therefore keep the Bishop 
well advised of the progress of the negotiations, and 
he can, in sight thereof, write to us what steps are to 
be taken from here, and the orders to be given respect- 
ing the entry into England of the said Nuncio and 
the fulfilment of his embassy. Advise me also of 
everything that happens in this matter, as we await 
your reply with the utmost solicitude. 

Elizabeth, however, had no intention either of receiving 
Martinengo, the Papal envoy, or of being represented at 
the Concilio — the revived Council of Trent. One of her 
objects in sending the Protestant Earl of Bedford to France, 
as mentioned by Quadra in his letter of February 23, was to 
persuade Catherine de' Medici to refuse her sanction to the 
Council — though in this he was unsuccessful — the while they 
were both participating in the meeting of Protestant princes 
at Nuremburg. Cecil's subtle game may be detected 
between the lines of Quadra's next letter to his King : 

BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, March 25, 1561. 

. . . Robert is very aggrieved and dissatisfied 
that the Queen should defer placing matters in your 
Majesty's hands, and sending a person to Spain to 
negotiate as he told me at first, and as he has fallen 
ill with annoyance the Queen resolved to please him 
by taking the following step. She sent Cecil to me 
to say that it would be a great service to the Queen and 
a help to this business if your Majesty, as soon as 
possible, would write her a letter saying that in the 
interests of the tranquillity and welfare of this 
country (which your Majesty desires as much as 
those of your own kingdom) your Majesty advises her 
not to delay her marriage any longer, and if she 
could not accept any of the foreign Princes who are 
her suitors, by reason of her disinclination to marry a 
person whom she does not know, then your Majesty 
thinks she ought to marry a gentleman of her own 



176 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

country, to the satisfaction, and on the selection, of 
her nobles, and your Majesty advises that this should 
be done at once, and promises to be a friend to 
whomever may be chosen for a husband. Cecil told 
me this not as from the Queen but as from himself, 
in the presence of Sidney, who had come to see me 
just before, I believe in order that I might tell your 
Majesty what the Queen sent to say to me. He 
(Cecil) said also that this was very important in your 
Majesty's interests and in the interests of the friend- 
ship between the two houses, because if these 
negotiations fell through the Queen might marry a 
prince less friendly to your Majesty than Robert 
would be. I answered that all this was very well, 
but I desired to know whether it was the Queen who 
sent word for me to write this, or whether it was a 
discourse of his own ; because this point was most 
important if your Majesty was to be persuaded to 
write, and if it were not the Queen's own wish, I did 
not know whether your Majesty would be disposed to 
give her any more advice, bearing in mind the small 
avail of all previous counsel to her. In reply he 
begged me, seeing that the Queen was a modest 
maiden and not inclined to marry, not to press her to 
propose these means and expedients herself, which 
would make her look like a woman who sought to 
carry out her desires, and went praying people to 
help her, but he urged me to get your Majesty to 
write. I did not think fit to answer him further, 
so as not to seem unwilling to do what he asked me. 
I turned the conversation to Sidney, and asked him 
whether Lord Robert would be pleased if your 
Majesty did this service for him. Sidney answered 
seriously that he would be grateful for all your 
Majesty might be pleased to do for him, and he 
begged me on his behalf to take up his cause 
warmly. 

Conversing further on the matter Cecil declared to 
me the object of this expedient. He said that the 
Queen was resolved to do nothing in the business 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 177 

without the consent and goodwill of her people, who 
have the right of controlling the public actions of 
their sovereigns, and she did not wish to prejudice 
this right by marrying without their consent. She 
desired your Majesty's letter to give her an opportunity 
for calling together some members of the three 
estates of the realm, and placing before them your 
Majesty's communication with the reason for coming 
to a decision, and so with the accord of these deputies 
to arrange the marriage with Robert. The deputies 
would be three bishops, six peers, and ten or twelve 
deputies of cities, all of them confidants of Robert 
and informed of the Queen's wish. This is now being 
arranged, and they have already ordered to be called 
together in some provinces the people who usually 
have the management of public affairs in order to 
form this deputation. The sum of it all is that Cecil 
and these heretics wish to keep the Queen bound and 
subject to their will, and forced to maintain their 
heresies, and although she sees that the heretics treat 
her very badly, especially the preachers, and that 
Robert is more disliked by them than by the 
Catholics, she dare not go against Cecil's advice 
because she thinks that both sides would then rise 
up against her. Robert is very displeased at all 
this, and has used great efforts (persuaded thereto by 
Sidney) to cause the Queen to make a stand, and 
free herself from the tyranny of these people, and 
throw herself entirely on your Majesty's favour. I 
do not think, however, that he has been able to 
prevail upon her, and as he is faint-hearted, and his 
favour is founded on vanity, he dare not break with 
the Queen, as I understand he has been advised to 
do by the Earl of Pembroke, who is of the same 
opinion as Sidney, and says that Robert should ask 
her either to marry him before Easter, (which she 
might well do with your Majesty's favour) or give 
him leave to go to the wars in your Majesty's 
service. But he is carrying on the negotiations as 
the Queen wishes, although he thinks she is mistaken, 

E.M.S. N 



178 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

and in the meanwhile he is waiting to see what can 
be done by means of your Majesty's reply, whilst 
Cecil is arranging this deputation as he pleases. I 
would beg your Majesty to instruct me how I should 
act if no reply has been sent to my last two letters. 

Dudley's hopes revived when Quadra told him a few days 
later of Philip's friendly message. " He was excessively 
overjoyed and could not cease saying how much he desired 
to serve your Majesty. It appears as if he had made up his 
mind to be a worthy man and gain respect, and when I told 
him your Majesty was glad to hear of his intention to try to 
restore religion in the country, he answered me at once, 
without stopping to think, that it was true he had that 
intention, as also had the Queen, who desired nothing else 
but to see herself free from these dissensions and her country 
tranquil." * Quadra's hopes were rudely shattered, however, 
when, a little later, Elizabeth flatly refused to receive the 
Papal Nuncio. His annoyance shows that he realised only 
too well how completely Cecil and his friends, if not 
Elizabeth herself, had hoodwinked him over " these conver- 
sations." 

BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II. 
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

June 30, 1 561. 

On the 3rd instant I gave your Majesty an account 
of affairs here since the decision of the Queen about 
the visit of the Nuncio, and the news now is that 
Waldegrave and his wife and Wharton 2 and some more 
of the Catholics, recently arrested, have been sentenced 
to the penalty provided by the statute for hearing 
mass. Although the sentence was pronounced at 
Westminster with all the solemnity usual in cases of 
treason, nothing was found against them but the 
hearing of mass. They also degraded five or six 
clergymen as wizards and necromancers, in whose 
possession were found calculations of nativity of the 

1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 195. 

2 Sir Edward Waldegrave and Sir Thomas Wharton, two members 
of Queen Mary's Privy Council. 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 179 

Queen and Lord Robert, and I know not what other 
curiosities of the sort, but all of small importance 
except in the hands of those who were glad to jeer at 
them. 

On the day of St. John the Queen ordered 
me to be invited to a feast given by Lord Robert, 
and, touching these sentences, I asked her Majesty 
whether her councillors and secretaries were not 
nearly tired of mocking Catholics, and if they had 
done any great service to the State in the efforts they 
had made to discover plots. She replied that the Secre- 
tary was certainly not to blame, and the others might 
say as they pleased, but it could not be denied that your 
Majesty had done good to all and harm to none in 
the country, and much more to the same effect. I 
still showed that I was offended and dissatisfied at 
her Council in general, and advised her to take care 
what she did, and not to surrender herself to men so 
fanatical as these, and especially in what concerned 
religion, directly or indirectly, because if she did she 
would never succeed in pacifying her Kingdom. I 
said much to the same effect which she listened to 
with her usual patience, and with many thanks. 

In the afternoon we went on board a vessel from 
which we were to see the rejoicings, and she, Robert, 
and I being alone on the gallery, they began joking, 
which she likes to do much better than talking about 
business. They went so far with their jokes that 
Lord Robert told her, that, if she liked, I could be the 
minister to perform the act of marriage, and she, 
nothing loath to hear it, said she was not sure whether 
I knew enough English. I let them jest for a time, 
but at last spoke to them in earnest, and told them 
that if they listened to me they could extricate them- 
selves from the tyranny of the councillors who had 
taken possession of the Queen and her affairs, and 
could restore to the country the peace and unity it so 
much needed by re-instating religion. If they did 
this they could effect the marriage they spoke of, and 
I should be glad, in such case, to be the minister to 

N 2 



180 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

perform it, and they might punish severely those who 
did not like it, as they could do anything with your 
Majesty on their side. As things were now I did not 
think the Queen would be able to marry except when 
and whom Cecil and his friends might please. I 
enlarged on this point somewhat because I see that, 
unless Robert and the Queen are estranged from this 
gang of heretics that surround them, they will continue 
as heretofore ; and if God ordain that they should fall 
out with them I should consider it an easy thing to 
do everything else we desire. I think of persevering 
in this course because, if I keep away from the Queen 
and discontinue these conversations, it will only leave 
a clear field to the heretics and play their game ; 
whilst, by keeping in with her, I not only maintain 
her friendliness to your Majesty, but have still some 
hope of persuading her, especially if these heretics do 
anything to offend her. I know they are furious at 
my having the Queen's ear and keeping friendly with 
Lord Robert, and in case your Majesty should think 
that this course might in some way prejudice the 
Catholics, I beg your Majesty to be reassured in that 
respect, and to believe that if I have any understand- 
ing at all I am employing it in keeping this business 
well in hand, as may be seen any day by the affection 
these Catholics have for your Majesty, whom they 
greatly desire. Only three days ago the persons of 
whom your Majesty has heard on other occasions 
sent to inform me that their party was never so strong 
as now, and that of the Queen never so unpopular 
and detested. 

Elizabeth was now in the full bloom of her womanhood, 
and made the most of it. One of the Imperial agents, 
Coloredo by name, returned to Vienna from England about 
this period with her portrait for the Archduke Charles, and 
spoke with enthusiasm of her " exceeding beauty." He also 
declared " that she lives a life of magnificence and festivity 
such as can hardly be imagined, and occupies a great portion 
of her time with balls, banquets, hunting, and similar amuse- 



THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 181 

merits with the utmost possible display ; but nevertheless she 
insists upon far greater respect being shown to her than was 
exacted by the late Queen Mary ; and although she has sum- 
moned Parliament, she has nevertheless ordered that her 
commands are to be executed notwithstanding that these may 
be contrary to the will of Parliament itself." ! 

It may not be inappropriate to close this chapter with a 
Venetian's picture of England itself at the same period. 
This is included in the report presented to " the most August 
Signory," by Michiel Surian : 

England is the most wealthy and powerful of all 
the kingdoms of the north, and although the Crown 
levies small import duties (usually about 100,000 
ducats), it has nevertheless sufficient supplies under 
ordinary circumstances for the public service both in 
time of peace and also in time of war, because in time 
of war subsidies, great and small, are levied upon 
owners of property according to the assessment of 
individuals appointed for that purpose ; and the sums 
fixed are paid within two months without any com- 
plaint or the slightest tumult, notwithstanding, as has 
happened frequently, that the amount has reached 
one million and a half of gold. The power of the 
country consists in its number of warlike men, and in 
the strength of its fleet, in which respect this kingdom 
is superior to all its neighbours, and also in the 
advantage of its natural position, which is easy to 
defend and difficult to attack. But from the dis- 
position of the people, and from the incapacity of the 
Council, the kingdom has lately suffered more detri- 
ment than advantage from the above forces, for 
Calais has been lost because no steps were taken in 
time to provide against the danger, and the country 
itself is weakened by many intestine discords. 

The English are universally partial to novelty, 
hostile to foreigners, and not very friendly amongst 
themselves ; they attempt to do everything that comes 
into their heads, just as if all that the imagination 

1 Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII., p. 659. 



182 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

suggests could be easily executed ; hence a greater 
number of insurrections have broken out in this 
country than in all the rest of the world, the most 
recent of these being that raised by Thomas Stafford, 
nephew of the Cardinal [Pole], who endeavoured to 
obtain the kingdom with only sixty men brought by 
him from France, and he paid the penalty of his 
temerity. From the same cause has arisen the 
change of faith, which is the greatest alteration that 
could possibly arise in a nation, because besides the 
offence which is thus committed against our Lord 
God, a revolution in customs, laws, obedience, and, 
lastly, in the very State itself, necessarily follows, as 
has happened in Asia, Africa, Germany, and in a 
great part of Europe. 

Hence also have resulted many depositions of great 
men and promotions of the unworthy, many imprison- 
ments, exiles, and deaths. It is also a fact, incredible 
though true, namely, that during the last twenty years 
three Princes of the blood, four Dukes, forty Earls, 
and more than three thousand other persons have 
died by violent death. It may therefore be easily 
imagined that no foreigner could rule this kind of 
people, when even their own countrymen are not 
safe, yet nevertheless the King [Philip] used every 
endeavour and every means suggested by his father 
and his friends to acquire authority over them. To 
obtain their favour he showed himself most gracious 
towards all ; he trusted his own life in their hands ; 
he professed openly to require nothing from them ; 
he spent money freely amongst all classes ; he reduced 
the Council of the Queen from the old number of 
twenty-five to six confidential persons only ; and he 
did everything he possibly could without resorting to 
force. . . . Queen Elizabeth, who has succeeded to 
the throne, owing to her courage and to her great 
power of mind, being similar to that of the King her 
father, declines to rely upon anyone save herself, 
although she is most gracious to all. 



CHAPTER V 

MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 

Mary Stuart and her Matrimonial Chances — Her Scottish Subjects 
Ready to Restore their Allegiance and Support her Claim to 
the English Succession — Mary Granted Freedom of Worship 
and Arranges to Return — Lethington's Assurance of Fidelity — 
Mary Still Declines to Ratify the Treaty— Elizabeth's Warning 
to the Scottish Estates — She Declines Mary a Safe Conduct 
through England — Her Refusal to Recognise Mary's Claim — 
Knox Warns Elizabeth Against his own Sovereign — Lady 
Catherine Grey's Disgrace — Mary Stuart's Return — Final Inter- 
views with Throckmorton — Farewell to France — Her Reception 
in Scotland — Knox Makes her Weep — Rival Queens in the 
Marriage Market — A Famous Letter from Knox — Enter Darnley 
—Lady Lennox under Arrest — Secret Proposal of Marriage 
to Mary — Cecil's Lament — Frank Correspondence Between 
Mary and Elizabeth — Scandalous Tales of Scottish Bishops — 
Ascham's Portrait of Elizabeth. 

While Elizabeth was playing her own game with love 
and diplomacy in England, Mary Stuart was recovering her 
health and spirits at Rheims and elsewhere under the tender 
care of her kinsfolk of the House of Guise. She had now 
joined Elizabeth among the world's richest prizes in the 
matrimonial market, and the fact that Mary's list of suitors 
rivalled hers in length and variety did not serve to improve 
their prospects of reconciliation. There was some talk of 
marrying Mary to her young brother-in-law, Charles IX., as 
Catherine of Arragon had married Henry VIII. after the 
death of his elder brother, Prince Arthur, but this plan would 
have involved the return to power of the Guises, which 
Catherine de' Medici wished to avoid at all costs. The 
alliance most threatening to English interests was that 
suggested with Don Carlos, the " vicious young lunatic," as 
Martin Hume calls him, who was Philip's only son by his 
first wife, and now some fifteen years old. This match 
would have thrown all the weight of Spanish influence in 
favour of Mary Stuart's claim to the English throne. As it 
happened, Catherine de' Medici wanted Don Carlos for her 



184 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

own daughter, Margaret ; so Mary's choice, apparently, lay 
between the Earl of Arran, who was most fancied by 
Catherine as a likely puppet in the hands of France, and a 
dazzling assortment of foreign Princes, crowned and other- 
wise. 

Her sorrows softened the hearts of her Scottish subjects, 
at a time when their amour propre was still smarting from 
Elizabeth's refusal of their formal offer of Arran as a means 
of joining the two kingdoms in the holy bonds of matrimony. 
After all, Mary Stuart was their lawful Queen, and now that 
there was little chance of French interference, the bulk of 
them were prepared to restore their allegiance, and — since 
Elizabeth had declined to marry a Scot — to support the 
Stuart claim to the English succession. " We all begin to 
enter into some devotion towards our Sovereign Lady," 
wrote Lethington to Cecil, scenting danger in the sense of 
security which had " lulled us asleep " since the death of 
Francis II. " I fear," he added, " many simple men shall be 
carried away with vain hope, and brought abed with fair 
words." 1 

Protestants and Catholics alike ardently sought the return 
of their widowed Queen, and sent rival deputations to France 
to probe her mind and win her consent. The Catholics, 
hoping for the immediate restoration of their faith, com- 
missioned John Lesley, the future historian and Bishop of 
Ross, to persuade her to land at Aberdeen, where they pro- 
mised to meet her with 20,000 men, and march on Edinburgh. 
The Protestants dispatched her half-brother, Lord James 
Stuart, bidding her return in the name of the Scottish 
Parliament, and promising her both an honourable reception 
and loyalty if she would consent to rule under the spiritual 
guidance of the reformed religion. In the existing state of 
affairs in France, with the Guises fallen from power, and the 
new rulers flirting with the Reformation, it needed a heroine 
with a more fanatical readiness for a martyr's crown than 
ever Mary Stuart possessed to champion the Catholic cause 
in Scotland at that moment, supported as she would be only 
by her own defeated subjects. Lesley's offer, therefore, was 
gratefully declined. It must have been a bitter humiliation 

1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 510. 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 185 

to Mary to realise, as her astute uncles doubtless pointed 
out, that her only hope now lay among subjects who 
had allied themselves to her natural enemy, and openly 
flouted her faith. Having, therefore, received an assur- 
ance that the Congregation would grant her personal 
freedom of worship, she declared her willingness to return. 
Whether Lord James was the traitor that some writers 
would have us believe, not only in telling Throckmorton, on 
his way home, the details of the interview, but also, it is 
alleged, in advising Elizabeth to capture Mary on her voyage 
to Scotland, is a debatable point which is discussed by 
Dr. Hay Fleming at length, if not conclusively, in his " Mary 
Queen of Scots." The alleged treachery with Elizabeth, he 
points out, is " inconsistent with Lesley's statement that 
Lord James hastened home to prepare for her early and 
honourable reception, and is still more inconsistent with 
the remarkable letter concerning the English succession, 
addressed by the maligned Commendator of St. Andrews to 
Elizabeth on August 6." This letter will be found in its 
chronological order, beginning on p. 189. A much longer 
letter addressed to Mary herself on June 10 (printed in 
Philippson's " Marie Stuart," Vol. III., pp. 435 — 43) proves 
that he made no attempt to conceal these much debated 
interviews with the English ambassador of the English Queen. 
Meantime Mary, having been advised by her uncles to use 
Lethington " most tenderly in all her affairs," though he had 
deserted her mother to support the rebels, as well as " to 
repose most upon them of the reformed religion," 1 sent him 
the following reply to his assurance of fidelity, and excuses 
for past dealings with Cecil and Elizabeth. The exact 
terms of his letter offering service can only be judged by 
Mary's answer : 

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS TO WILLIAM MAITLAND 

OF LETHINGTON. 

[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.] 

Paris, June 30, 1561. 
Lethington — I have your letter of the 10th of this 
month. If you employ yourself in my service, and 
show the good will whereof you assure me, you need 
1 "Memoirs of Sir James Melville," pp. 88 — 9. 



186 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

not fear calumniators or talebearers, for such have no 
part with me. I look to results before believing all 
that is told me. For the scruple that may arise from 
your acquaintance in England, it will cease with your 
intelligence there, and is easy to remedy if you wish. 
Forasmuch as you have been the principal instrument 
and negotiator of all practices that my nobles have 
had there, if you wish (that besides forgetting all past 
offences, as I have written before) that I should in 
good earnest trust and employ you, cause the hostages 
now in that country to be withdrawn, and busy 
yourself in undoing what you have brought about 
therein, so that I may be assured of your good affec- 
tion. You have the knowledge and skill to do more 
than that, for nothing passes among my nobility 
without your knowledge and advice. I will not 
conceal from you that if anything goes wrong after I 
trust you, you are he whom I shall blame first. 

I wish to live henceforth in amity and good neigh- 
bourhood with the Queen of England, and am on the 
point of leaving for my realm, where I hope to be at 
the time I announced by the Prior of St. Andrews. On 
arriving, I shall need some money for my household 
and other expenses. There must be a good year's 
profit from my mint and also other casualties. You 
will pleasure me by having it ready from some quarter 
or another, and for all that give me notice. I saw 
by your letters you had published and executed those 
I lately sent you as to the alienation of church lands. 
For my further intentions, being on my departure, I 
remit them to my arrival, when I see and hear from 
you how things have passed both before and since 
the troubles. 

The news of Mary's approaching return without ratifying 
the Treaty of Edinburgh was gall and wormwood to Eliza- 
beth, whose ambassadors had again tried in vain to get her 
signature shortly before the arrival of the Scottish delegates. 
" But she made answer," wrote Michiel Surian, "that during 
her Consort's life everything was governed by his Council, 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 187 

and now that he was dead, before treating anything, she 
must make a Council of those of her Kingdom, with which 
she must rule." 1 Elizabeth accordingly warned the Scottish 
Estates that they would have cause to repent it if they sup- 
ported her in her " breach of solemn promise." The original 
draft of this letter is in Cecil's hand much corrected : 

QUEEN ELIZABETH TO THE ESTATES OF SCOTLAND. 

[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.] 

July 1, 1561. 

We doubt not but as our meaning is and hath been 
always since our reign, in the sight of Almighty God, 
straight and direct towards the advancement of His 
honour and truth in religion, and thus for peace and 
concord betwixt these two realms, so also our outward 
acts have declared the same to the world and you our 
neighbours, who have tasted and proved our good will 
more we think than any of your ancestors, yea more 
than many of yourselves could have hoped for ! 
Though at the beginning of your troubles, the jealousy 
and malice of divers both there and abroad, suspected 
us of meaning to surprise the realm and deprive your 
Queen of her crown, or to make the monarchy a 
commonwealth, yet the end showed our meaning was 
to establish our cousin and sister in her state, then in 
the hands of strangers ; and though no words could 
satisfy the malicious, yet our deeds declare nothing 
was sought but restitution to the ancient liberty, as 
the solemn treaty at Edinburgh last year by our and 
your Queen's commissioners testifies. Yet your Sove- 
reign, either not knowing her own felicity, or seduced 
by perverse counsel, forbears, though sundry times 
required by us, to ratify the same, and makes dilatory 
answers, and would have us delay till she returns to 
her country. We must plainly let you all understand 
that this manner of answer without fruit, cannot long 
content us. Our meaning to your sovereign has been 
good, we stayed her realm from danger, and have 
kept peace hitherto, as we promised. We think it 

1 Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII., p. 301. 



188 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

strange she has no better advice, and require you all 
the Estates of the realm, to consider the matter 
deeply, and make answer whereto we may trust. If 
you support her breach of solemn promise, we shall 
accept your answer, and doubt not but, by the grace 
of God, you shall repent it. If you will have it kept, we 
promise you the like, and all shall go well with your 
Queen, yourselves and posterities. Advertise us of 
your mind, specially if it is for peace, and if you for- 
bear any long time to advertise us ye shall give to us 
some occasion of doubt, whereof more hurt may grow 
than good. 

Elizabeth was still pestered by the matrimonial advances 
of the King of Sweden, who did not mind much, apparently, 
whether he married the English or the Scottish Queen. 
Cecil's letter on the subject also throws a certain amount of 
light on Lord James's subsequent proposals to Elizabeth on 
behalf of Mary's pretensions to the English throne : 

SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO SIR NICHOLAS 
THROCKMORTON. 

[" Hardwicke State Papers."] 

London, July 14, 1561. 

. . . The Queen's Majesty hath plainly written to 
this King, that considering she is not as yet disposed 
to marriage, she doubteth whether in coming, and 
not obtaining his suit, he should change his love into 
offence ; and therefore I think, upon the receipt of 
these lines he will stop. I am most sorry of all that 
her Majesty is not disposed seriously to marriage, for 
I see likelihood of great evil both to this State, and 
to the most of the good particular persons, if she 
shall not shortly marry. There hath been a matter 
secretly thought of, which I dare communicate to 
you, although I mean never to be an author thereof; 
and that is, if an accord might be made betwixt our 
Mistress and the Scottish Queen, that this should, 
by Parliament in Scotland, etc., surrender unto the 
Queen's Majesty all matter of claim, and to the heirs 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 189 

of her body ; and in consideration thereof, the Scottish 
Queen's interest should be acknowledged in default 
of heirs of the body of the Queen's Majesty. 
Well, God send our Mistress a husband, and in time 
a son, that we may hope our posterity shall have a 
masculine succession. This matter is too big for 
weak folks, and too deep for simple. The Queen's 
Majesty knoweth of it, and so I will end. 

I have advertised the Lords of Scotland of the 
Queen's answer to D'Oyssel. De Seurre said yester- 
day, privately, that he looked for such an answer as 
this was. Yesternight, I thank the Queen's Majesty, 
she took a supper at my rude new cottage, wherein I 
thought my costs well bestowed for her gracious 
acceptance of all my offers. Sir Thomas Challoner 
is putting himself in order to go into Spain to take 
Mr. Chamberlain's place, and now it resteth to com- 
pass your coming home. I am had here in continual 
jealousy, and you in like mistrust. 

Lord James did not realise on what dangerous ground he 
was treading when he attempted to compromise matters with 
Elizabeth, after she had declined to promise Mary a safe 
conduct through England on her journey north until she had 
signed the treaty. Elizabeth had made herself perfectly 
clear on this much-discussed point. To D'Oyssel she wrote on 
July 15 that, " finding no answer from the Queen of Scotland 
but delay, she requires the ratification of their late treaty, 
which if performed, she will gratify any reasonable request 
for passing through her realm, and, if it likes the said Scottish 
Queen, will give order for a friendly meeting between them 
for corroboration of their amity " x : 

LORD JAMES STUART TO QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.] 

Edinburgh, August 6, 1561. 

My earnest desire to see the intelligence betwixt 
these two realms long endure, moves me deeply to 
consider how, on one part, it may be increased, on 

1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I. 



igo ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

the other, what are the chief impediments to be 
avoided. For the increase, I doubt not but con- 
formity of religion, neighbourhood sustained by mutual 
good offices, and the very necessity of the case, will 
daily promote it. Indeed, seeing for the subjects' part, 
the old enmity of these two nations is by God's pro- 
vidence miraculously converted to reciprocal good 
will, and both desire a friendly conjunction : I see 
not what could impede it, if the heads could so 
heartily be joined in love as be the members, I mean 
your Majesty and the Queen my sovereign lady — 
betwixt whom I find many natural causes, and 
straight bonds of amity, and but one root from which 
any variance can grow. You be tender cousins, both 
Queens in the flower of your ages, much resembling 
other in most excellent and goodly qualities, on whom 
God hath bestowed most liberally the gifts of nature 
and fortune. Your sex will not permit you to advance 
your glory by war and bloodshed, but in that of a 
peaceable reign. Neither of you is ignorant from 
what root the contrary affection proceeds ; whereon 
before I touch, I shall crave pardon of my boldness, 
which proceeds only from the good will of him who of 
all the subjects in both realms, hath, as appeareth to 
me, most interest to wish that your two Majesties 
were joined in most tender familiarity. 

I wish to God the Queen my sovereign lady had 
never by any advice taken in head to pretend interest 
or acclaim any title to your Majesty's realm, for then 
I am fully persuaded you would have been and con- 
tinued as dear friends as you be tender cousins — but 
now since on her part something hath been thought 
of it, and first motioned when the two realms were 
in war together (your Majesty knoweth it) I fear that 
unless the root may be removed, it shall ever breed 
unkindness betwixt you. Your Majesty cannot yield, 
and she may on the other part think of it hard, being 
so nigh of the blood of England, to be made a stranger 
from it ! If any mid way could be picked out to 
remove this difference to both your contentments, 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 191 

then it is like we could have a perpetual quietness. I 
have long thought of it, and never durst communicate 
it to the Queen my sovereign, nor many of my country- 
men ; nor yet will hereafter follow it further than 
shall seem good to your Majesty. The matter is 
higher than my capacity is able to compass, yet upon 
my simple overture your Highness can lay a more 
large foundation. What, if your Majesty's title did 
remain untouched, as well for yourself as the issue of 
your body ? Inconvenient were it to provide that to 
the Queen my sovereign her own place were reserved 
in the succession of the Crown of England ? Which 
your Majesty will pardon me, if I take to be next by 
the law of all nations, as she that is next in lawful 
descent of the right line of King Henry the Seventh 
your grandfather — and in the meantime this isle to be 
united in perpetual friendship. The succession of 
realms comes by God's appointment at His good 
pleasure, and no provision of man can alter what He 
has determined, but it must needs come to pass ! Yet 
it appears that without injury to any party, this 
accord might bring us great quietness. Everything 
must have some beginning, and if I may receive 
answer from your Majesty that you can allow it, I will 
travail to bring my sovereign to some conformity ; if 
you mislike it, I will no farther meddle therewith. . . . 
Protesting in the presence of God that this my over- 
ture proceedeth of no other intent, nor tendeth to any 
other end, than to the continuance of the intelligence 
begun, which I wish rather to do (?) than see in any 
point violated. 

Elizabeth's refusal is understandable when read in the 
light of Cecil's " Minutes for the Queen's Person, March 
1561 " printed in the Burghley Papers, in which all manner of 
rules for guarding against poison are laid down for her 
Majesty's safety. She had reason to suspect that her enemies 
were only waiting for the appointment of her successor — 
especially of one who was the chief hope of the Catholics of 
both England and Scotland — to find some ready means of 



ig 2 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

removing her from their path. Therein, probably, lay the 
real secret of the long feud which could only end with the 
death of one or other of the rival Queens. 

Knox, still anxious to win his way into Elizabeth's good 
graces, did not hesitate to accuse his own sovereign of sinister 
designs against her, though obviously his real object in 
writing the following letter was to mitigate the offence of his 
notorious " First Blast of the Trumpet" : 

JOHN KNOX TO QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.] 

Edinburgh, August 6, 1561. 

Grace from God the Father through our Lord 
Jesus, with perpetual increase of His Holy Spirit. 
Please your Majesty, it is here certainly spoken that 
the Queen of Scotland travaileth earnestly to have a 
treatise entitled "The First Blast of the Trumpet," 
confuted by the censure of the learned in divers 
realms ; and further that she laboureth to inflame the 
hearts of princes against the writer. And because it 
may appear that your Majesty hath interest : that she 
mindeth to travail with your Grace's council and 
learned men, for judgment against such a common 
enemy to women, and to their regiment [rule]. It 
were but foolishness in me to prescribe to your 
Majesty what is to be done in anything — especially in 
what men think touches myself — but of one thing I 
think myself assured, and therefore I dare not con- 
ceal it, — to wit, that neither doth our sovereign so 
greatly fear her own estate by reason of that book, 
nor yet doth she so unfeignedly favour the tranquillity 
of your Majesty's reign and realm, that she would 
take so great and earnest pains unless her crafty 
council, in so doing, shot at a farther mark. Two 
years ago I wrote unto your Majesty my full declara- 
tion touching that work ; experience since hath shown 
that I am not desirous of innovations, so that Christ 
Jesus be not in His members openly trodden under 
the feet of the ungodly. With further purgation 
I will not trouble your Majesty for the present. 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 193 

Beseeching the Eternal so to assist your Highness in 
all affairs that in His sight ye may be found acceptable, 
your regiment profitable to your commonwealth, and 
your facts to be such that justly they may be praised 
of all godly, unto the coming of our Lord Jesus, to 
whose mighty protection I unfeignedly commit your 
Majesty. 

Knox was neither shy of warning a rival Queen against 
his own Sovereign, nor of giving advice on occasion which, 
to say the least of it, was questionable, coming from the lips 
of one who, like Caesar's wife, should have been above 
suspicion. When English aid was so sorely needed by the 
Lords of the Congregation before Leith, and Elizabeth had 
not definitely thrown in her lot with the rebels, he had made 
the following crafty suggestion to Croft : " The sending of 
a thousand or more men to us can break no league or peace 
contracted between you and France, for it is free for your 
subjects to serve in war any prince or nation for their wages, 
and if you fear that such excuses shall not prevail, you may 
declare them rebels to your realm when you shall be assured 
that they are in our company." 1 

In the midst of the fears occasioned by Mary's return 
came the discovery of what Elizabeth believed to be another 
plot against her throne through the person of Lady Catherine 
Grey, whom we have already seen as a not unwilling tool 
in the hands of the Spanish Ambassadors. Apart from her 
Catholic leanings Catherine Grey was always distrusted by 
Elizabeth as the next heir to the crown after herself 
should she die childless, according to the terms of Henry 
the Eighth's will. Distrust turned to hatred when Catherine 
confessed, as a result of becoming enceinte, that she had 
secretly married the Earl of Hertford, the eldest son of the 
Protector Somerset. It was no longer treason for anyone 
of royal blood to marry without the Sovereign's consent, 
but, as will be seen in Quadra's next letter, there was reason 
to suspect that the affair was not unconnected with some 
deep political design, and Lady Catherine was at once 
committed to the Tower. Hertford soon followed her there, 

1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 256. 
E.M.S. O 



i 9 4 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

summoned post-haste from Paris ; the marriage was 
declared invalid, and the child to be born illegitimate. 
Cecil's letter, containing the first wind of this unhappy 
romance, is also important for its refutation of the charge 
made against Elizabeth of having sent a fleet to intercept 
Mary Stuart, with the veiled hope, as Froude suggests, that 
the English admiral — whoever he might be — would un- 
wittingly send her ship with its freight to the bottom of 
the North Sea. Mary was now preparing for the voyage 
which she had determined to make to Scotland direct, since 
Elizabeth would not permit her to pass through England 
without first signing the obnoxious Treaty : 

SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO THE EARL OF SUSSEX. 
[Wright's "Elizabeth and her Times."] 

August 12, 1561. 

The 10th of this at Ipswich, was a great mishap 
discovered. The Lady Catherine is certainly known 
to be big with child, as she saith, by the Earl of 
Hertford, who is in France. She is committed to 
the Tower. He is sent for. She saith that she was 
married to him secretly before Christmas last. 

Thus is God displeased with us. The Scottish 
Queen was the 10th of this month at Boulogne, and 
meaneth to take shipping at Calais. Neither those 
in Scotland nor we here do like her going home. 
The Queen's Majesty hath three ships in the north 
seas to preserve the fishers from pirates. I think 
they will be sorry to see her pass. 

The Queen's Majesty doth well, thanked be God, 
although not well quieted with this mishap of the 
Lady Catherine. 

Your Lordship's to command, 

W. Cecil. 

Elizabeth herself wrote to assure Mary of the falseness 
of the report that she meant to intercept her, even while 
Lethington was pouring scorn upon Cecil's head for neglecting 
such a golden opportunity of capturing his Queen. " If two 
galleys may quietly pass," he wrote, " I wish the passport 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 195 

had been liberally granted. To what purpose should you 
open your pack and sell more of your wares, or declare 
yourselves enemies to those whom you cannot offend ? " * 
Elizabeth, however, was now relying upon the Scottish 
Council to see justice done in the matter of the Treaty, and 
Mary's promise, sent by Lord St. Colme, that she would 
follow her Council's advice, led to " friendly and sisterly 
offers of friendship " which, on the surface at least, augured 
well for the future : 

QUEEN ELIZABETH TO MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 

[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.] 

August 16, 1561. 

Lord St. Colme brought us your letters dated the 
8th of this present at Abbeville, signifying, that 
although by our answer to you by M. D'Oyssel, ye 
doubted our amity, yet after certain purposes passed 
betwixt you and our ambassador, ye assured us of 
your good meaning, and required credit for St. Colme, 
who has declared to us the same excuse for not 
ratifying the treaty as yourself did to our ambassador 
— whom we have briefly answered, as he can show 
you. If he shall not do so, lest you thought your 
reasons had satisfied us, summarily we assure you 
your answer is no satisfaction ; we only require per- 
formance of your promise, whereto ye are bound by 
your seal and hand — in your own power as Queen 
of Scotland — which yourself, in words confess, con- 
cluded by your late husband's and your own ambas- 
sadors, to which your own nobility and people were 
privy, and without which no amity can continue. 
Yet seeing by the report of the bringer, that ye mean 
forthwith on coming home, to follow the advice of 
your Council there, we suspend our conceit of all 
unkindness, and assure you we be fully resolved on 
performance thereof, to unite in sure amity, and live 
with you in the knot of friendship, as we are in that 
of nature and blood. And herein we are so earnestly 
determined, that if the contrary follow (which God 

1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 544. 

O 2 



196 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

forbid) the world shall see the occasion to be in you, 
not in us ; as the story witnesseth the like of the 
King your father, our uncle, whom evil councillors 
advised against meeting our father at York to con- 
clude a perpetual bond : whereof we know witnesses 
remain with us, and some (we think) with you. For 
the report that we had sent our admiral and navy 
to impeach your passage : your servants know its 
falseness, and that we have only two or three small 
barques at sea, to apprehend certain Scottish pirates 
haunting our seas under pretence of letters of marque : 
whereto we were almost compelled by the complaint 
of the Spanish Ambassador. On this matter we 
earnestly require your consideration at coming to 
your realm — the rather for respect that should be 
betwixt Scotland, our realm, France, Spain, and the 
House of Burgundy. Recommending us to you with 
the request not to neglect this our friendly and 
sisterly offers of friendship, which before God we 
mean and intend to accomplish. 

This " sisterly " letter did not reach Mary in time to 
prevent anxiety on the score of her voyage from adding to 
the sadness of saying good-bye to the fair land of France 
in which the happiest years of her life had been spent. If 
her preparations had not been so far advanced, she told 
Throckmorton, his mistress's unkindness might have stayed 
her passage, but now she was determined to sail at all costs. 
Of his last interviews with the widowed Queen, Throckmorton 
sent Elizabeth a vivid account in diary form, which, though 
slightly out of chronological order, deserves quoting at length 
for its clear statement of Mary's case in her own words, as 
well as for its involuntary tribute to her dauntless spirit : 

SIR NICHOLAS THROCKMORTON TO QUEEN 
ELIZABETH. 

["Cabala" 3rd Edition, 1691.] 

Paris, July 26, 1561. 

The 20th of this present, in the afternoon, I had 
access to the Queen of Scotland, with whom I found 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 197 

M. D'Oyssel talking when I entered into her chamber. 
She dismissed him and rose from her chair when she 
saw me ; unto whom I said : " Madam, whereas you 
sent lately M. D'Oyssel to the Queen my mistress, to 
demand her Majesty's safe conduct for your free 
passage by sea into your own realm, and to be 
accommodated with such favours as upon events you 
might have need of upon the coast of England, and 
also did further require the free passage of the said 
M. D'Oyssel into Scotland through England, the 
Queen my mistress hath not thought good to suffer 
the said M. D'Oyssel to pass into Scotland, nor to 
satisfy your desire for your passage home, neither for 
such other favours as you required to be accom- 
modated withal at her Majesty's hand, inasmuch as 
you have not accomplished the ratification of the 
treaty accorded by your deputies in July, now twelve 
months ago, at Edinburgh, which in honour you are 
bound many ways to perform : for besides that you 
stand bound by your hand and seal, whereby your 
Commissioners were authorized, it may please you, 
Madam, to remember that many promises have been 
made for the performance thereof, as well in the 
King your husband's time, as by yourself since his 
death, and yet notwithstanding the treaty remaineth 
unratified, as before, a whole year being expired for 
the accord thereof, which by your Commissioners was 
agreed to have been ratified within sixty days : so as 
upon this unamicable and indirect dealing, the Queen 
my mistress hath refused you these favours and 
pleasures by you required, and hath grounded this 
her Majesty's strangeness unto you upon your own 
behaviour, which her Majesty doth uncomfortably, 
both because your Majesty is, as she is, a Queen, her 
next neighbour, and next kinswoman. Nevertheless, 
her Majesty hath commanded me to say unto you, 
Madam, that if you can like to be better advised, and 
to ratify the treaty, as you in honour are bound to do, 
her Majesty will not only give you and yours free 
passage, but also will be most glad to see you pass 



ig8 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

through her realm, that you may be accommodated 
with the pleasure thereof, and such friendly conference 
may be had betwixt you as all unkindness may be 
quenched, and an assured perfect amity betwixt you 
both for ever established." 

Having said thus much unto her, the Queen sat 
down, and made me sit also by her. She then 
commanded all the audience to retire them further 
off, and said : " Monsieur 1' Ambassador, I know not 
well my own infirmity, nor how far I may with my 
passion be transported ; but I like not to have so 
many witnesses of my passions as the Queen your 
mistress was content to have, when she talked with 
M. D'Oyssel. There is nothing that doth more grieve 
me than that I did so forget myself as to require of 
the Queen your mistress that favour which I had no 
need to ask. I needed no more to have made her 
privy to my journey than she doth me of hers. I 
may pass well enough home into my own realm, I 
think, without her passport or licence ; for though 
the late King your master used all the impeachment 
he could both to stay me, and to catch me when I 
came hither, yet you know Monsieur l'Ambassador, 
I came hither safely : and I may have as good means 
to help me home again as I had to come hither, if I 
would employ my friends. Truly I was so far from 
evil meaning to the Queen your mistress, that at this 
time I was more willing to employ her amity to stand 
me in stead than all the friends I have ; and yet you 
know, both in this realm and elsewhere, I have both 
friends and allies, and such as would be glad and 
willing to employ both their forces and aid to stand 
me in stead. You have, Monsieur l'Ambassador, 
oftentimes told me that the amity between the Queen 
your mistress and me was very necessary and 
profitable for us both. I have some reason now to 
think that the Queen your mistress is not of that 
mind ; for I am sure, if she were, she would not have 
refused me thus unkindly. It seemeth she maketh 
more account of the amity of my disobedient subjects 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 199 

than she doth of me their sovereign, who am her 
equal in degree, though inferior in wisdom and 
experience, her nighest kinswoman, and her next 
neighbour ; and trow you that there can be so good 
meaning between my subjects and her which have 
forgotten their principal duty to me their sovereign, 
as there should be betwixt her and me ? I perceive 
that the Queen your mistress doth think, that because 
my subjects have done me wrong, my friends and 
allies will forsake me also : indeed your mistress doth 
give me cause to seek friendship where I did not 
mind to ask it ; but Monsieur l'Ambassador, let the 
Queen your mistress think that it will be thought 
very strange among all princes and countries that 
she should first animate my subjects against me, and 
now being widow, to impeach my going into my own 
country. I ask her nothing but friendship ; I do not 
trouble her state, nor practice with her subjects : and 
yet I know there be in her realm those that be 
inclined enough to hear offers. I know also they 
be not of the mind she is of, neither in religion, 
nor other things. The Queen, your mistress, doth 
say that I am young, and do lack experience ; indeed 
I confess, I am younger than she is, and do want 
experience ; but I have age enough and experience to 
use myself towards my friends and kinsfolk friendly 
and uprightly ; and I trust my discretion shall not so 
fail me that my passion shall move me to use other 
language of her than it becometh of a Queen, and my 
next kinswoman. Well, Monsieur l'Ambassador, I 
could tell you that I am as she is, a Queen allied and 
friended, as is known ; and I tell you also that my 
heart is not inferior to hers, so as an equal respect 
would be had betwixt us on both parts ; but I will not 
contend in comparisons : first, you know that the 
accord was made in the late King my Lord and 
husband's time ; by whom, as reason was, I was 
commanded and governed ; and for such delays as 
were then in his time used in the said ratification, I 
am not to be charged. Since his death, my interest 



200 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

failing in the realm of France, I left to be advised by 
the Council of France, and they left me also to mine 
own Council ; indeed, my uncles being, as you know, 
of the affairs of this realm, do not think meet to 
advise me in my affairs ; neither do my subjects, nor 
the Queen your mistress, think meet that I should be 
advised by them, but rather by the Council of my 
own realm. There are none of them, nor any such 
as is thought meet that I should be counselled by. 
The matter is great ; it toucheth both them and me ; 
and in so great a matter it were meet to use the 
advice of the wisest of them. I do not think it meet 
in so great a matter to take the counsel of private 
and.unexpert persons, and such as the Queen your 
mistress knoweth be not most acceptable to such of 
my subjects as she would have me be advised by. I 
have oftentimes told you, that as soon as I had their 
advices, I would send the Queen your mistress such 
an answer as should be reasonable. I am about to 
haste me home as fast as I may, to the intent that 
the matter might be answered ; and now the Queen 
your mistress will in no wise suffer either me to pass 
home, or him that I sent into my realm. So as 
Monsieur l'Ambassador it seemeth the Queen your 
mistress will be the cause why in this manner she is 
not satisfied, or else she will not be satisfied ; but 
liketh to make this matter a quarrel still betwixt us, 
whereof she is the author. The Queen your mistress 
saith, that I am young ; she might as well say that I 
were as foolish as young, if I would, in the State and 
Country that I am in, proceed to such a matter of 
myself, without any counsel ; for that which was done 
by the King my late Lord and husband must not be 
taken to be my act ; so as neither in honour, nor in 
conscience, I am bound, as you say I am, to perform 
all that I was by my Lord and husband commanded 
to do ; and yet I will say truly unto you, and as God 
favours me, I did never mean otherwise unto her than 
becometh me to my good sister and cousin, nor meant 
her any more harm than to myself; God forgive them 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 201 

which have otherwise persuaded her, if there be any 
such. What is the matter, pray you, Monsieur 
l'Ambassador that doth so offend the Queen your 
mistress, to make her thus evil-affected to me ? I 
never did her wrong, neither in deed, nor speech. It 
should the less grieve me if I had deserved otherwise 
than well ; and though the world may be of divers 
judgments of us and our doings one to another, I do 
well know, God that is in Heaven can and will be a 
true Judge, both of our doings and meanings." 

I answered : " Madam, I have declared unto you 
my charge commanded by the Queen my mistress, 
and have no more to say to you on her behalf, but to 
know your answer for the ratification of the treaty." 

The Queen answered : " I have aforetime showed 
you, and do now tell you again, that it is not meet 
for to proceed in this matter without the advice of 
the nobles and states of mine own realm, which I can 
by no means have until I come among them. You 
know as well as I, there is none come hither 
since the death of the King my late husband and 
Lord, but such as are either come for their private 
business, or such as dare not tarry in Scotland. 
But, I pray you, Monsieur l'Ambassador tell me, 
how riseth this strange affection in the Queen your 
mistress towards me ? I desire to know it, to the 
intent I may reform myself, if I have failed." 

I answered : " Madam, I have by the command- 
ment of the Queen my mistress, declared unto you 
the cause of her miscontentation already : but seeing 
you so desirous to hear how you may be charged 
with any deserving, as one that speaketh of mine 
own mind, without instruction, I will be so bold, 
Madam, by way of discourse, to tell you. As soon 
as the Queen my mistress, after the death of her 
sister, came to the Crown of England, you bore the 
arms of England diversely quartered with your own, 
and used in your country notoriously the style and 
title of the Queen my mistress, which was never by 
you put in use in Queen Mary's time : and if anything 



202 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

can be more prejudicial to a prince than to usurp the 
title and interest belonging to them, Madam, I do 
refer it to your own judgment. You see, such as be 
noted usurpers of other folk's states, cannot patiently 
be borne withal for such doings. Much more the 
Queen my mistress hath cause to be grieved (con- 
sidering her undoubted and lawful interest) with the 
offer of such injury." 

" Monsieur 1'Ambassador," said she, " I was then 
under the commandment of King Henry my father, 
and of the King my lord and husband ; and whatso- 
ever was done then by their order and commandments, 
the same was in like manner continued until both 
their deaths ; since which time, you know I have 
neither borne the arms, nor used the title of England. 
Methinks these my doings might ascertain the Queen 
your mistress that that which was done before, was 
done by commandment of them that had the power 
over me ; and also in reason she ought to be satisfied, 
seeing I order my doings as I tell you. It were no 
great dishonour to the Queen my cousin, your 
mistress, though I, as Queen also, did bear the Arms 
of England ; for, I am sure, some, inferior to me, and 
that be not on every side so well apparented as I am, 
do bear the Arms of England. You cannot deny but 
that my grandmother was the King her father's sister, 
and, I trow, the eldest sister he had. I do assure 
you, Monsieur 1'Ambassador, and do speak unto you 
truly as I think, I never meant nor thought matter 
against the Queen my cousin. Indeed I know what I 
am, and would be loath either to do wrong, or suffer 
too much wrong to myself: and now that I have told 
you my mind plainly, I pray behave yourself betwixt 
us like a good Minister, whose part is to make things 
betwixt Princes rather better than worse." And so I 
took my leave of the said Queen for that time. . . . 

To the intent I might the better decipher whether 
the Queen of Scotland did mind to continue her 
voyage, I did, the 21st of July, repair to take my 
leave of her ; unto whom I then declared that 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 203 

inasmuch as I was your Majesty's Ambassador, as 
well to her for the matters of Scotland, as to the 
French King your good brother, and hearing, by 
common bruit, that she minded to take her voyage 
very shortly, I thought it my duty to take my leave of 
her, and was sorry she had not given your Majesty 
so good occasion of amity as that I, your Minister, 
could not conveniently wait upon her to her embark- 
ing. The said Queen made answer: "Monsieur 
l'Ambassador, if my preparations were not so much 
advanced as they are, peradventure the Queen your 
Mistress's unkindness might stay my voyage ; but 
now I am determined to adventure the matter, 
whatsoever come of it ; I trust the wind will be so 
favourable that I shall not need to come on the coast 
of England ; for if I do, then, Monsieur l'Ambassador, 
the Queen your mistress shall have me in her hands 
to do her will of me ; and if she be so hard-hearted 
as to desire my end, she may then do her pleasure, 
and make sacrifice of me. Peradventure that casualty 
might be better for me than to live. In this matter 
God's Will be fulfilled." I answered, she might 
amend all this matter if she would, and find more 
amity of your Majesty and your realm than of any 
other prince or country. The Queen answered : " I 
have, methinketh, offered and spoken that which 
might suffice the Queen my sister, if she will take 
anything well at my hand. I trust, for all this, we 
shall agree better than some would have us ; and for 
my part, I will not take all things to the worst. I 
hope also the Queen my sister and cousin will do the 
like ; whereof I doubt not, if Ministers do no harm 
betwixt us." And so the said Queen embraced 
me. . . . 

The Queen of Scotland departed from St. Germains 
yesterday, the 25th of July, towards her voyage, as 
she bruiteth it. She sendeth most of her train 
straight to Newhaven [Havre] to embark, and herself 
goeth such a way between both as she will be at her 
choice to go to Newhaven, or to Calais : Upon the 



204 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

sudden, what she will do, or where she will embark, 
she will make known to never a Scotsman, and but 
to few French ; and for all these shows and boasts, 
some think she will not go at all ; and yet all her stuff 
is sent down to the sea, and none other bruit in her 
house but of her hasty going. If it would please your 
Majesty to cause some to be sent privily to all the 
ports on this side, the certainty shall be better known 
to your Majesty that way, by the laying of her vessels, 
than I can advertise it hence. She hath said that at 
her coming into Scotland, she will forthwith rid the 
realm of all the Englishmen there, including your 
Majesty's agent, and forbid mutual traffic with your 
Majesty's subjects. If she make the haste to embark 
that she seemeth to do, she will be almost ready to 
embark by that time this shall come to your Majesty's 
hands. 

It was on August 14 that Mary bade her last farewell to 
France, and to the beloved Cardinal and Due de Guise, 
whom she was destined never to see again. Three other 
uncles embarked with her to see her safely established 
among her unknown subjects — Claude, Due d'Aumale, 
Ren6, Marquis d'Elboeuf, and Francis, the Grand Prior. 
Brantome and her four Maries (Mary Seton, Mary Beaton, 
Mary Livingstone, and Mary Fleming) also accompanied 
her, together with an escort of French and Scottish gentle- 
men. The details of her voyage, as Andrew Lang observes, 
are " dim as the sea mist which, earlier or later, fell on 
Mary's galleons — the protection of heaven, said her friends ; 
the warning of an angry God, said Knox." Sailing from 
Calais with two galleys and either two or four great ships — 
accounts differing on this point — she landed at the pier at 
Leith on the morning of the 19th, undismayed to find no pre- 
parations for her reception, owing to the unexpected hastening 
of her departure from France. " The Queen's Majesty's ships 
that were upon the seas to cleanse them from pirates," wrote 
Cecil to Throckmorton on August 26th, " saw her and 
saluted her galleys, and staying her ships examined them of 
pirates, and dismissed them gently. One Scottish ship they 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 205 

detained, as vehemently suspected of piracy." 1 Thankful 
no doubt to have escaped the perils of the sea, Mary on 
landing rested for awhile in the few rooms which were 
hastily prepared for her, before proceeding on her way 
to Holyrood Palace. " Incontinent upon the news of 
her landing," wrote Randolph to Throckmorton, "the 
Duke of Chatelherault arrived first, next Lord James, then 
Arran. Since that time the repair has been of all sorts, all 
men welcome and well received, good entertainment, great 
cheer, fair words." 3 Mary's girlish beauty, the unaffected 
grace with which she invested every act, and her brave 
attempts to adapt herself to all her strange surroundings, 
won the hearts of everyone except that of the invincible 
John Knox : 

THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 
[Wright's "Elizabeth and her Times."} 

Edinburgh, September 7, 1561. 

. . . Where your Honour exhorteth us to stoutness, 
I assure you the voice of one man is able in one hour 
to put more life in us than five hundred trumpets 
continually blustering in our ears. Mr. Knox spoke 
upon Tuesday unto the Queen. He knocked so 
hastily upon her heart that he made her weep ; but 
well you know there be of that sex those who will do 
that as well for anger as for grief, though in this the 
Lord James will disagree with me. She charged 
him with his book, 3 with his severe dealing with all 
men that disagreed with him in opinions. She willed 
him to use more meekness in his sermons. Some 
things he spoke unto her contentation in mitigating 
the rigour of his book, and in some things he pleased 
her very little ; in special speaking against the Mass 
he declared the grievous plagues of God that had 
fallen upon all estates for committing of idolatry. 
He concluded so in the end with her that he hath 
liberty to speak freely his conscience, to give unto 

1 Hardwicke State Papers, Vol. I., p. 176. 

2 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 547. 
8 The embarrassing " First Blast." 



206 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

her such reverence as becometh the minister of God 
unto the superior powers. He prayeth, and hath 
daily prayed, for her as the preachers were wont to 
pray for Queen Mary, etc. The bruit that he hath 
talked with the Queen maketh the Papists doubt 
what will become of the world. It liketh not them 
well that I resort so often unto the Court. I have 
been there thrice since Sunday. But of all they 
marvel most what traffic the Lord of Lethington 
maketh with you. She herself hath found three 
points necessary to maintain her state ; first to make 
peace with England ; next to be served with the 
Protestants — in the other she findeth not that she 
looked for. The third is to enrich her crown with 
the Abbey lands. Which three, if she do, what shall 
there lack in her (saving a good husband) to lead a 
happy life ? Seeing your Honour hath one with you 
with whom you can consider these things better than 
I can write of them, I leave them to your judgments 
and talk of some other matters. 

Upon Tuesday last she made her entry [into Edin- 
burgh]. She dined in the Castle. The first sight 
that she saw after she came out of the Castle was a 
boy of six years of age, who came as it were from 
heaven out of a round globe, presenting unto her a 
Bible, and Psalter, and the keys of the gates, and 
speaking unto her the verses which I send you. The 
rest were terrible significations of the vengeance of 
God upon idolatry. There were burnt Korah, Dathan, 
and Abiram, in the time of their sacrifice. They were 
minded to have had a priest burned at the altar, at 
the elevation. The Earl of Huntly stayed that 
pageant, but hath played many as wicked as that 
since he came hither. . . . 

Your Honour's always bounden and ready to 
command. 

Tho. Randolph. 

It was not enough that Mary issued a proclamation 
forbidding any attempt to change the newly established 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 207 

religion "until altered by her and the Estates of the Realm." 
To Knox, " one Mass was more terrible than ten thousand 
armed men," and it roused him to fury to think that she 
should be permitted to have her own service in the Chapel 
Royal. Her kirk was a harlot, he dared to tell her in a long 
theological discussion which he reports at length in his own 
" History of the Reformation." Maitland bears witness to 
his intolerance in one of his letters to Cecil 1 : 

WILLIAM MAITLAND OF LETHINGTON TO SIR 
WILLIAM CECIL. 

[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.] 

Edinburgh, October 25, 1561. 

The Queen my mistress behaves herself so gently 
in every behalf as reasonably we can require ; if 
anything be amiss the fault is rather in ourselves. 
You know the vehemency of Mr. Knox's spirit, which 
cannot be bridled, and yet doth sometimes utter such 
sentences as cannot easily be digested by a weak 
stomach. I would wish he should deal with her 
more gently, being a young princess unpersuaded. 
For this am I accounted to be too politic ; but surely 
in her comporting with him, she doth declare a 
wisdom far exceeding her age. God grant her the 
assistance of His spirit. Surely I see in her a good 
towardness, and think that the Queen your sovereign 
shall be able to do much with her in religion, if they 
once enter into a good familiarity. 

A theological discussion between Mary and Elizabeth 
would have been as edifying as that between Mary and 
Knox when he called his sovereign's church a harlot to her 
face ; but this was not the only occasion on which the hope 
was expressed that the English Queen would succeed in 
converting her Catholic cousin. Elizabeth at the time, 
however, was more anxious about their matrimonial affairs 
than the safety of their souls. She even encouraged the 
King of Sweden again in order to spoil Mary's chances in 
that direction, for she meant to have no more foreign rulers 
across the border if she could help it : 

1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 565. 



2 o8 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II. 

{Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, September 13, 1561. 

The coming of the King of Sweden is still con- 
sidered certain, and such preparations are made that 
it is difficult to help thinking that he will come. I 
have used every effort to find out the secret of this 
business, but I can discover nothing more than, as I 
have told your Majesty, that the Queen does not 
think of marrying him, and is in no pleasure at his 
coming. On the contrary, she has lately tried openly 
to stop it. Since, however, the Queen of Scotland 
decided to go to her kingdom, and the Scottish rebels 
did not gather to prevent her passage as this Queen 
wished, the latter has determined to dissemble with 
the Swede, and let him come, for fear he should 
marry her of Scotland. The Queen of England and 
her friends therefore wish to appear undecided and 
indifferent, and to give the idea that perhaps she may 
marry the Swede. Robert is consequently making a 
show of being very displeased, which I am sure is not 
really the case, as he is in greater favour than ever. 
The King of Sweden's ambassador does not fail to 
see through this mystery, and says he has informed 
his master what he thinks about it, but nevertheless 
he is sure he will come, and he concludes that the 
only cause of his visit is the great affection he bears 
the Queen, and his desire to see her. Your Majesty 
may judge how likely it is that a new King, with a 
war on his hands, or suspicions of one, and whose 
power consists in his money alone, should come so 
long a voyage with so little reason, and leave behind 
him all his property in the hands of a servant. What 
I suspect, and many others think, is that he is being 
brought over by the enemies of Robert, and that he is 
coming for a settled arrangement ; if not here, then in 
Scotland. There is a statement made that an Eng- 
lish merchant, named John Dimock, who recently 
went to Sweden to sell some jewels to the King, told 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 209 

him not to fail to come to England on any account, 
as all the realm desired him. Dimock confesses that 
he said this on the instructions of Pickering and 
Yaxley (of the Queen's chamber.) It will be a strange 
thing to me if there is not something important under 
this visit if it takes place, for the King's people here 
do not seem to me so thoughtless as not to let him know 
his error, if his coming here were so purposeless as 
they declare. I have already advised your Majesty 
of the imprisonment of Lady Catherine, and that the 
Queen had summoned the Earl of Hertford, who was 
in France. On his arrival, he was examined, and 
cast into the Tower. They say he confesses that 
Lady Catherine is his wife, and. from the form of the 
confession and other indications, there is some 
suspicion that the marriage was effected with the 
connivance and countenance of some of the nobles. 
They are now investigating this with all possible 
diligence. Great suspicions are entertained of the 
Earl of Arundel, with whom Lord Robert has had 
such words that the Earl went home, and he and 
others are drawing up copies of the testimony given 
in the inquiry respecting the death of Lord Robert's 
wife. Robert is now doing his best to repair matters, 
as it appears that more is being discovered in that 
affair than he wished. Some suspicion is also held 
of the Earl of Bedford, who is absent from the Court. 
They say Robert is to be made Earl of Exeter 
(Leicester). 

What I understand by it all is that both Lady 
Catherine's marriage, and the bringing over of the 
King of Sweden, were arranged a year ago, after the 
death of Robert's wife, and that Cecil (who was then 
in great disgrace with the Queen and at enmity with 
Robert) was at the bottom of it, in the fear that, in 
accord with common belief, the Queen would marry 
Robert and restore religion to obtain your Majesty's 
favour. Since Cecil has returned to the good graces of 
the Queen, and has satisfied himself that there will be 
no change of religion, he has gradually and cautiously 

e.m.s. p 



210 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

separated himself from these negotiations, and is now 
endeavouring to hush up and amend the past, which 
he can very well do, as he has absolutely taken 
possession of the Queen and Council, but he is so per- 
plexed and unpopular that I do not know how he will 
be able to stand if there are any disturbances. 

What is of most importance now, as I am informed, 
is that the Queen is becoming dropsical, and has 
already began to swell extraordinarily. I have been 
advised of this from three different sources and by a 
person who has the opportunity of being an eye wit- 
ness. To all appearance she is falling away, and is 
extremely thin, and the colour of a corpse. I do not 
know whether the coming of this Swede is in conse- 
quence of any news he may have received of this 
malady of the Queen's, but I do know that the 
Marchioness of Northampton, who is in a better 
position to judge than anyone else, is very intimate 
with the Swedish ambassador, and has received 
valuable presents from him. That the Marchioness 
and Lady Cobham consider the Queen in a dangerous 
condition is beyond doubt, and if they are mistaken I 
am mistaken also. I can obtain no more precise 
intelligence, but I think there is some foundation for 
what I say. 

Whilst the talk of this King's coming continues, 
the Queen is using every precaution to ensure that 
the Queen of Scots shall not marry anyone doubtful. 
She is doing this by persuading the Scots not to let 
their Queen marry a foreign prince, and offering to 
help and favour them if she will do as they (the 
English) tried to get her to do after the King of 
France died. As the Earl of Arran is interested in 
this, and many other Scots will benefit by it, the 
Scottish lords have given their Queen to understand 
that if she marries a foreigner they will withdraw 
their fealty. This news was brought five days ago by 
Lethington, who came here nominally about the rati- 
fication of peace requested by the Queen of England. 
This Lethington is secretary of the Queen of Scots, 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 211 

and served the same office last year to the congrega- 
tion of rebels, where he managed everything. He 
has been welcomed here with his news because, not 
only would this marriage with the Earl of Arran be 
very advantageous to the Queen of England, as 
ensuring her against any present danger from her of 
Scotland, but it would be a good example to show the 
English that their Queen also might marry a subject. 
Lethington returned at once, successful, he said, in the 
ratification of peace, but I am quite sure if she (the 
Queen of Scots) does not act as her subjects ask her 
in the matter of her marriage, that an arrangement 
exists between the Scottish lords and this Queen here 
to resist her, and to prevent the entrance into the 
kingdom of anyone come to marry her. 

The reason the Queen of England did not prevent 
the Scottish Queen from going to her country, as she 
had decided to do, was only because the Earl of Arran 
and his band thought best not to slight her too soon, 
but considered it wiser to let her come, and then take 
possession of her. I also understand that they have 
proposed to her to confirm the change of religion 
they adopted last year, and, in answer to this, and 
also about the marriage, she has told them she must 
have time to think carefully, and cannot determine 
anything against her conscience. I am afraid they 
will press her so much that, if there are no foreign 
forces to protect her, her own friends will be unable 
to resist the rebels, fostered and countenanced by this 
Queen here. Mass is said in her house, but this has 
not been done without tumults and disturbances 
among the people, which disturbances the heretics 
themselves have tried to pacify for the present. 

Serious trouble was soon brewing in Edinburgh between 
the bigoted zealots of the Kirk and their Catholic Queen. 
Lord James and Lethington sided with Mary as far as they 
dared, even supporting her when she imprisoned the newly- 
elected magistrates of Edinburgh for their gross affront in 
issuing a proclamation expelling " monks, friars, priests, 

P 2 



212 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

nuns, adulterers, and all sic filthy persons," and ordered a 
new election. It was this bold stand on Mary's part which 
stirred Knox to write the famous letter that follows : 

JOHN KNOX TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 
[Haynes. " Burghley Papers."] 

Edinburgh, October 7, 1561. 

If God had not so often (right Worshipful) trapped 
the men of most singular experience in their own 
wisdom, when they have begun more to credit their 
own imaginations than the will of God manifestly 
revealed, I would have judged your counsel most 
wholesome ; but because I find so many examples of 
God's punishment in that behalf, I fear to do evil to 
them that good may come of it ; and yet, if to suffer 
impiety to be committed, which by just power might 
have been gainstood and repressed, be to commit 
iniquity (as the light of Nature, be it ever so obscured, 
doth teach us that it is) then can I not but accuse 
myself that I did not more zealously gainstand that 
idol at the first erecting. Men delighting to swim 
betwixt two waters have often complained upon my 
severity, fearing, as it seemed, that the same should 
trouble the quietness of brethren. But I do fear 
that that which men term lenity and dulciness do 
bring upon themselves and others more fearful 
destruction than hath ensued the vehemency of any 
preacher within this realm. 

That our Queen shall be allured by any such 
means, as we use it, is altogether contrary to my 
judgment, for as I have spoken, so I see in experience 
that by permission Satan groweth bold. For now 
she feareth not to set forth proclamations contrary to 
those that command whoremongers, adulterers, and 
idolaters, to be punished according to the former and 
established reformation. The Papists, I grant, blow 
the bellows, but the faintness of some, flattery of 
others, and corrupt affections of such as ought to 
withstand such attempts, are like shortly to destroy 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 213 

the face of that building which God by his power had 
founded among us. This I write from dolor of heart. 
Some of no small estimation have said with open 
mouth the Queen neither is, neither shall be, of our 
opinion ; and in very deed her whole proceedings do 
declare that the Cardinal's lessons are so deeply 
printed in her heart that the substance and the quality 
are like to perish together. I would be glad to be 
deceived, but I fear I shall not. In communication 
with her I espied such craft as I have not found in 
such age. Since, hath the Court been dead to me, 
and I to it. One thing I cannot conceal ; too much 
bearing is like to break the most strong back, if we 
cast not off the burden betimes. To be plain, those 
that always have had the favour and estimation of 
the most godly, begin to come in contempt because 
they open not themselves more stoutly against 
impiety. Doubt not but your Council may somewhat 
reward the persons. Ye know, my Lord James and 
Lethington, whom if God do not otherwise conduct, 
are like to lose that which not without travail hath 
heretofore been conquest. At this very instant are 
the Provost of Edinburgh and Baillies thereof com- 
manded to ward [imprisoned] by reason of their 
proclamation against Papists and whoremongers. 
The whole blame lyeth upon the necks of the two 
forenamed, by reason of their bearing. God deliver 
us from the plague, which manifestly appeareth. 
Thus being troubled I have troubled your Honour, 
whom I commit to the protection of the Omnipotent. 
Yours to command in Godliness, 

John Knox. 

Darnley now appears on the scene for the first time in 
a letter from Quadra written at the time of his mother's 
imprisonment in 1561, when he was sixteen, and Mary three 
years older. The subject is introduced by an incident 
which shows — though the scare referred to proved unfounded 
— how uneasy lay the head which wore a crown in those 
unsettled days : 



214 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, November 27, 1561. 

In conversation with the Queen about the intelligence 
written from France by a certain Juan Battista Beltran, a 
native of Venice, to the effect that the Duke of Nemours 
had tried to abduct the Duke of Orleans and poison the 
Duke of Vendome, I said that the first seemed most 
improbable for several reasons, and as to the second, 
it was not by any means to be believed of a gentle- 
man like the Duke, and above all on the statement of 
such a man as this Beltran, whom I knew well as 
being unworthy of credit. She asked me a great 
many questions about him, and seeing that I answered 
frankly she said she wished to divulge a secret of me, 
which was that when Beltran was here some months 
ago he had informed her that your Majesty was trying 
to have her killed by poison, and that for this purpose a 
certain Greek had come hither, and I was concerned 
in it. I made light of it and laughed, but told her that 
if she had acted as I should have expected from her 
prudence she would have informed me of this in time to 
have the man punished. When she saw that I might 
have good reason to take offence at this she said 
that Beltran had not revealed it here, but in France, 
and that her ambassador had only written it to her 
two days ago, to which I had no answer to make, 
although I knew the excuse was false. On the con- 
trary, I pretended to believe her, and appeared satisfied. 
I have since endeavoured to get to the bottom of this, 
and find it is true that this Beltran, who was here 
two or three months ago, told Cecil that the Greek 
Vergecio, of whom I have already written to your 
Majesty, had come hither on behalf of the Pope to 
arrange an agreement by which the Papists were to 
kill the Queen and Lord Robert. It is said that 
Cecil was very busy investigating the matter, but 
satisfied himself at last that the man was simply a 
swindler, and had only come to get money from them. 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 215 

I am much surprised at the Queen's inventing the 
other story and prevaricating thus without any reason, 
although I thought that as soon as she had said it 
she repented, and tried to get over it by appearing to 
consider it the absurdity it is. I know however that 
it was not looked upon at all as a joke at first, and 
that Cecil himself was waiting at a door for many 
hours on the watch for two men described by Beltran, 
who were to be arrested. This would not have been 
done, at least by Cecil himself, if they had not taken 
the thing seriously. 

The Queen has sent a summons to Lady Margaret 
Douglas to come hither with her husband and children. 
It is said publicly that the reason of this is that she 
shows favour to the Catholics in the province of York, 
and that consequently the Bishop dares not visit his 
diocese or punish any Papist. This reason, however, 
is a pretended one, and has been made public to 
deceive the people as to the reality, which is that the 
Queen hears that Lady Margaret is trying to marry 
her son to the Queen of Scots. This has been 
divulged by one of her servants, whom the Queen has 
taken into her service and rewarded for the informa- 
tion, and inquiries are now being made as to those 
who may have taken part in the matter. The Earls 
of Northumberland and Westmoreland and the Duke 
of Norfolk have been brought hither at once with the 
excuse that the Queen wished them to pass Christmas 
with her. I understand that Lady Margaret is much 
distressed, as she thinks she will be thrown into the 
Tower, and that her son's life is in danger. I am 
told that she is resolved not to deny the allegation 
about the marriage of the Queen of Scots, as she 
says it is no crime, and as that Queen is her niece, 
the daughter of her brother, she thinks she has done 
no harm in advising her to do what she believes 
would be the best for her, namely, to marry her son, 
by which the succession of this kingdom would be 
secured to the Scottish Queen, and all reason for 
strife would be avoided in case of the Queen of 



2i6 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

England dying without issue. If the English should 
allege that the Queen of Scots could not succeed in 
consequence of her being a foreigner, she would 
nevertheless reign over the kingdom by right of this 
youth, the son of Lady Margaret, if she married him, 
as he is an Englishman and beyond doubt the nearest 
heir to the crown after her. This Queen, however, 
bases her security on there being no certain successor 
to whom the people could turn if they were to tire of 
her rule, and I understand she is in great alarm 
about this business, and determined to obtain posses- 
sion of the persons without the reason being made 
public, as she fears that if the people were to under- 
stand the business it might please them and cause a 
disturbance if Lady Margaret were free. In order to 
summon her without turmoil they have taken the 
pretext of finding fault with her about religion, which 
will make her unpopular with London people. This 
gives great pain to the faithful, as they had placed 
all their trust in this woman and her son, and if they 
dared I am sure they would help her, and forces 
would be forthcoming in the country itself if they had 
any hope of help from without. 

Lady Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, who had 
been excluded from the English succession in the closing 
years of Henry VIII., owing to her Roman Catholic leanings, 
had planned the match between Mary and her son before 
the Scottish Queen's return. She was not one lightly to 
forego the privileges of her direct descent from Henry VIII. 's 
eldest sister, though her mother had obtained a Papal decree 
invalidating the marriage of which she was the offspring, 
and the Scottish Estates had pronounced her a bastard. 
Lady Margaret found every encouragement for her ambitions 
in the disaffected northern counties, whence, with her family, 
she was now summoned by Elizabeth, who was not without 
some inkling of her intrigues. She was accordingly handed 
over to the custody of Sir Richard and Lady Sackville at 
Sheen, while her husband was committed to the Tower ; 
and at least twelve months elapsed before Elizabeth saw fit 
to release them. Lady Margaret was supported in her 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 217 

matrimonial scheme by the Catholic nobles of Scotland, for 
whom Darnley, although a naturalized Englishman, was 
a fit rallying point as the heir of two great Scottish houses. 
Mary had been approached on the subject shortly after her 
arrival, and though she declined to commit herself one way 
or the other, she left Darnley's tutor, Arthur Lilliard, to 
whom had been entrusted the delicate task of making this 
secret proposal, with the impression that she would bear it 
well in mind. No word of this seems to have reached Knox 
or Randolph ; nor was it mentioned when Lethington visited 
the English Court with his mistress's formal messages of 
courtesy, accompanied by the defiant declaration of the 
Scottish lords that they would stand by their Queen if 
Elizabeth insisted on the ratification of the treaty which 
they had themselves helped to make. Their mistress, they 
said, was willing to forgive the ungenerous refusal of the 
passage through England ; " but if it should chance, as God 
forbid ! that the Queen of England would use any discourtesy 
towards the Queen their sovereign, or give occasion on her 
part to violate the good amity and peace between their two 
Majesties, she might be well assured that they, acknowledg- 
ing themselves to be her subjects, would not forget their 
duty for the maintenance of the Queen their sovereign's 
just quarrel." l Elizabeth took this protest in surprisingly 
good part, perhaps because the arrest of Lady Catherine 
Grey and the Countess of Lennox, with all the dark 
suspicions roused thereby, made her more tolerant of Mary's 
claims to the succession. It was a treacherous, uncertain 
outlook, whatever point of view she took, and she did not 
mend matters by discouraging her best advisers. That Cecil 
was again out of favour at this time is obvious from his 
bitter complaint on the subject to Throckmorton : 

SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO SIR NICHOLAS 
THROCKMORTON. 

[" Hardwicke State Papers."'] 

Westminster, December 22, 1561. 

... I might lament my place that I hold being 
to outward appearance, because of frequentation with 

1 Froude. 



218 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

her Majesty, of much credit; yet, indeed, of none at 
all. But my remedy is to leave the place ; wherein 
my only grief is to see the likelihood of such suc- 
cessors as I am sure will destroy all my good 
purposes. I may not write, but yet I may lament. 
What is my credit to help anybody, may appear in 
myself, that have been forced to sell off the land which 
I had when I came to this place with the Queen — 
one hundred and fifty pounds of good known lands. 
And, at this instant, I am with burden of debt 
compelled to ask leave of her Majesty to sell 
away my office in the Common Pleas, that hath 
been the only stay of my living these fifteen 
years, and her Majesty doth license me so to do. 
But so that I might be able to procure furniture 
for others to serve her Majesty, I cared not for 
myself. 

I have carried in my head, with care, the means 
how her Majesty should from time to time conduct 
her affairs. I see so little proof of my labour, by 
reason her Majesty not allowing them, that I have 
left all to the wide world. I do only keep on accounts 
for show, but inwardly I meddle not, leaving 
things to work in a course, as the clock is left when 
the barrel is wound up. It is time to end these 
complaints to you, who cannot remedy them ; but 
yet because you write to me divers times of 
matters worthy your consideration, thinking that 
you have bestowed them well on me, in hopes 
that I will fashion them and put them forth, when 
you see I have no comfort so to do, I thought not 
inconvenient to note thus much to you of my imper- 
fection. 

Here be no small practices in forging, some think 
of the succession, if her Majesty should not marry or 
leave issue. This song hath many parts ; but, for 
myself, I have no skill but in plain song. Others be 
devising how to hinder religion, the rather because 
her Majesty seemeth easy therein ; and if I do no 
good, I am sure therein I do no hurt ; and in respect 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 219 

thereof, principally, do I the rest of all my services. 
I find a great desire in both these Queens to have an 
interview ; and knowing the diversity of both their 
intents, although I wish it, yet I know it dangerous 
to be any singular doer therein. 

To Mary's protest that she desired nothing more than to 
be on good terms with her " sister," and her promise to sign 
the treaty if her Majesty would consent to its revision at the 
hands of a joint commission of Englishmen and Scotsmen, 
Elizabeth replied on November 23rd that she saw "no good 
cause to be so well satisfied as we looked for," yet considered 
her meaning " sincere and just as ours is." At the same 
time, she did not like the idea of a new commission, and 
invited Mary instead, frankly, to state in a private letter, 
what were her real objections to the treaty. " When 
princesses treat by open assembly of ambassadors," she 
wrote, " the world, especially the subjects of both, judge 
the amity not sound, but shaken or crazed, which we would 
no wise to be conceived of ours. . . . You shall see we 
require nothing but justice, honour, and reason." * Mary 
thereupon took Elizabeth at her word : 

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS TO QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.] 

Seton, January 5, 1562. 

Whereas by your letters of 23rd November, we 
understand that our answer given to Sir Peter 
Mewtas, as he reported it, is not so satisfactory as 
ye looked for : we cannot imagine any lack therein. 
As our meaning is and has been sincere and upright, 
we so tempered our answer as we thought might well 
stand with your content, and quietness of us both : 
wishing to that end that the treaty might be reviewed 
by some commissioners sufficiently authorised on both 
parts — whereto you have in your letter opened such 
a just and necessary consideration, that the world 
shall not by our dealing by open assembly of ambas- 
sadors, judge that the amity is not sound, but in 

Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 571 — 2. 



220 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

some points shaken or erased. This we well allow 
and take as a plain declaration of your good mind, 
and token of your natural love to us. Therefore, 
where ye think it better we should either communi- 
cate privily to Randolph your servant, or rather by 
our own letters to you, the just causes moving us to 
stay the ratification, we willingly embrace that same, 
and presently mean so plainly to utter our mind to 
you, that ye shall well perceive the memory of all 
former strange accidents is clearly extinguished on 
our part, and that now without reservation we deal 
frankly with you in such sort as is convenient for 
two sisters professing such firm amity to treat. We 
leave to touch in what time the treaty was passed — 
by whose command, by what ministers, how autho- 
rised, or the sufficiency of their commission — though 
the least of these is worthy consideration — but will 
only touch that head which is meet for us to provide, 
and on your part not inconvenient, but such as in 
honour, justice, and reason ye may well allow. How 
prejudicial that treaty is to such title and interest as, 
by birth and natural descent of your own lineage, 
may fall to us, by inspection of the treaty ye may 
easily perceive, and how slenderly a matter of so 
great consequence is wrapped up in obscure terms. 
We know how near we are descended of the blood 
of England, and what devices have been attempted 
to make us as it were a stranger from it! We trust 
being so near your cousin, ye would be loth we should 
receive so manifest an injury as all utterly to be 
debarred from that title which in possibility may 
fall unto us. We will deal frankly with you, and 
wish that ye deal friendly with us. We will have 
no judge at present of the equity of our demand but 
yourself. If we had such a matter to treat with 
any other prince, there is no person whose advice 
we would rather follow. Such is the account we 
make of your amity, and opinion of your uprightness 
in judgment, that though the matter partly touches 
yourself, we dare adventure to put much in your 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 221 

hands, and will require nothing of you but that we 
could find in our heart to grant to you, if the like 
case were ours. For that treaty, so far as concerns 
us, we will do all that in reason may be required, or 
rather enter into a new one, such as may stand 
without our prejudice, in favour of you and the 
lawful issue of your body; provided that our interest 
to that crown, failing yourself and the said issue, may 
be put in good surety. Whereon the matter being so 
knit up, and all seed of dissension uprooted, we shall 
present to the world such an amity as has never 
been seen. We having written thus to show the 
bottom of our mind nakedly, trust to be answered 
in like fashion. 

After this candid correspondence, the suggestions for a 
meeting between the two Queens referred to in Cecil's last 
letter were taken up with apparent eagerness on both sides. 
This was more palatable to the Protestants than to the 
Catholics, who regarded Mary's tolerance of heresy with 
increasing alarm. " If the Queens meet, the Papists think 
themselves utterly overthrown," wrote Randolph to Cecil ; 
" they say plainly she cannot return a true Christian 
woman." Some idea of the extravagant tales which cir- 
culated among all Scottish reformers in those days — partly 
perhaps explaining their bitter hatred of the Catholics — 
may be gathered from another of Randolph's gossipy 
dispatches : 

THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 

[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.] 

Edinburgh, January 15, 1562. 

. . . The bishops are so intolerably licentious that 
it was not to be endured, and no better way to plague 
them than to pluck at their livings by her in whom 
their whole hope and trust was ! There is a merry 
tale that Cardanus the Italian took upon him the 
cure of the Bishop of St. Andrews of a disease judged 



222 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

by all incurable. He practised on him divers strange 
inventions ; hung him certain hours a day by the 
heels, to cause him void at the mouth what nature 
could not otherwise expel — fed him many days with 
young whelps, used him with extreme heats, and as 
many days with extreme colds. Before his departure, 
he " roundeth " daily for six days certain unknown 
words in his ear, and used no medicine after. It is 
said he then put a devil within him, for he has since 
been better, and that this devil was given unto him 
of credit but for nine years, which, being near expired, 
either he must go to hell with his devil, or fall again 
into his old mischief to poison the whole country 
with his false practices. In token of repentance, 
besides his old concubine taken from her married 
husband, he hath this year had (his devil I trow was 
father to the one or both) a couple of children. His 
bastard brother the Bishop of Argyll has now two 
women with child besides his wife. The Bishop of 
Dunblane — it is shameful to speak it — spareth not 
his own daughter. The rest are alike. 

By January 30 Mary had so persuaded the same ambas- 
sador of her good will that he assured Cecil : " The Queen's 
affection for the Queen's Majesty is so great that never was 
greater to any, or it is the deepest dissembled and the best 
covered that ever was." l A flattering portrait of Elizabeth 
herself belongs to this period, painted by Roger Ascham, 
whom, on ascending the throne, she had retained as Latin 
Secretary, and whose pride in his illustrious pupil is, perhaps, 
excusable. The portrait appears in his belated reply to a 
letter from his learned friend Sturmius, who had written to 
him more than two years previously on behalf of the King 
of Sweden in his suit for Elizabeth's hand in marriage. The 
delay in answering him, he explained in the course of a 
letter which is far too long to print in full, was entirely 
due to illness, being " so attacked by continual fevers that 
one scarcely left me without another immediately following 
in its place" : 

1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I. 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 223 

ROGER ASCHAM TO JOHN STURMIUS. 
["Zurich Letters." Second Series.] 

London, April 11, 1562. 

Your last letter to me was dated Jan. 15, 1560. 
The two heads of which, one concerning the Scots' 
business, the other concerning the Queen's marriage, 
induced me to give it to the Queen herself to read ; in 
both of which she discreetly noticed and graciously 
acknowledged and commended your singular respect 
towards herself. She exceedingly approved your 
judgment respecting the then existing state of affairs 
in Scotland, and even now she greatly values you for 
your solicitude about us and our affairs. The passage 
concerning her marriage, I well remember, she read 
over three times, with an occasional sweet smile, and 
a very modest and bashful silence. Respecting her 
marriage, my very dear John Sturmius, I have neither 
any thing certain to write myself, nor does any one 
else among us, I am sure, know what to think about 
it. It was not for nothing, my Sturmius, but after 
due consideration, that in that first long letter of mine 
to you I stated, that in her whole manner of life she 
more resembled Hippolyte than Phaedra. Which 
observation I then referred, not to the grace of her 
person, but wholly to the chastity of her mind : for of 
her own nature, without the advice of any one, she is 
so entirely averse and abstinent from marriage. 
When I know any thing for certain, I will write you 
word by the first opportunity : meanwhile I can give 
you no hopes as far as the King of Sweden is 
concerned. 

I wish you would sometimes write to master Cecil : 
for he is both most sound in religion, and most dis- 
creet in the government of the state ; and indeed, next 
to God and the Queen, the most firm support of both. 
He is also very fond of learning and learned men, and 
is himself well skilled in both Latin and Greek, 
You wish, I know, to hear from me respecting our 
affairs. But I have nothing that I consider better 



224 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

worth writing about than the Queen herself. I will 
therefore briefly describe what great and important 
matters, since she has taken the helm of government, 
she has planned with wisdom, and accomplished with 
success. First of all, she dedicated her earliest 
endeavours to God, by nobly purifying the religion 
which she found miserably polluted ; in the accom- 
plishment of which object she exercised such 
moderation, that the Papists themselves have no 
complaint to make of having been severely dealt with. 
This peace established with God was followed by a 
peace with all the neighbouring sovereigns : and yet, 
on her accession to the throne she found this kingdom 
involved in a double war, with the Scots and the 
French. Next, she so firmly and prudently withstood 
the Guises in Scotland, who were plotting wonderful 
things against us, that there now exists between both 
kingdoms, and both sovereigns, as secure a peace and 
firm an alliance, as can possibly take place between 
two most quiet neighbourhoods or most united sisters. 
After religion, in the first place, and the State next, 
had been restored to so desirable a tranquillity, she 
applied her mind to the proper settlement of other 
internal improvements of the realm. 

All the coin that had been debased, and entirely 
alloyed with copper, she has restored to the pure 
silver standard 1 ; an arduous and royal task, which 
neither Edward nor even Henry himself ever ventured 
to undertake. She has furnished her armoury with 
such exquisite materials that no sovereign in Europe, 
I am sure, can show its equal. Her navy too she has 
so embellished and provided with every necessary, 
both as regards the abundance of stores and the ability 
of the sailors, that the resources of a wealthy kingdom 
might seem to have been expended upon this sole 
object. 

1 " Queen Elizabeth has restored all our gold and silver coinage 
to its former value, and rendered it pure and unalloyed ; a truly 
royal act, and which you will wonder could have been effected in so 
short a time." Dr. Jewel to Peter Martyr, February 2, 1562 
(Zurich Letters, First Series). 



MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 225 

These things are of a public nature, and relate to 
the whole realm. Let us now inspect her personal 
character and pursuits. She is readily forgetful of 
private injury, but is a severe assertor of public 
justice. She does not excuse crime in any one ; she 
leaves no one the hope of impunity ; she cuts off from 
everyone the liberty of offending. She, least of all 
princes, covets the property and wealth of her subjects, 
and requires her own revenues to be expended spar- 
ingly and economically upon every private pleasure, 
but royally and liberally either for any object of public 
convenience, or for the splendour of domestic magnifi- 
cence. But the glory she derives from herself, and 
the adornments of talent and learning that she 
possesses, I have described to you in another letter. 
I will now only state in addition, that neither at 
Court, nor in the universities, nor among our heads 
in church or state, are there four of our countrymen 
who understand Greek better than the Queen herself. 
When she is reading Demosthenes or ^schines, I 
am very often astonished at seeing her so ably under- 
stand, I do not mean, the force of the words, the 
structure of the sentences, the propriety of the 
language, the ornaments of oratory, and the har- 
monious and elegant bearing of the whole discourse ; 
but also, what is of more importance, the feeling and 
spirit of the speaker, the struggle of the whole debate, 
the decrees and inclinations of the people, the manners 
and institutions of every state, and all other matters 
of this kind. All her own subjects, and very many 
foreigners, are witnesses to her proficiency in other 
languages. I was one day present when she replied 
at the same time to three ambassadors, the Imperial, 
French, and Swedish, in three languages : Italian to 
one, French to the other, Latin to the third; easily, 
without hesitation, clearly, and without being con- 
fused, to the various subjects thrown out, as is usual 
in their discourse. That you may yourself see how 
elegantly she writes, I send you enclosed in this 
letter a slip of paper, in which you have the word 

E.M.S. Q 



226 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

" quemadmodum " written in the Queen's own hand. 
The upper one is mine, the lower the Queen's. 
Let me know in your next letter whether the sight is 
pleasant to you and the present an acceptable one. 

And thus much respecting our most noble Queen, 
who is, besides all this, my most munificent mistress, 
and also very partial to John Sturmius. And should 
you ever happen to come to England, you will, I 
think, hear from her own mouth that Roger Ascham 
has not been a forgetful friend to John Sturmius in 
the presence of so great a sovereign. This account 
of our most excellent Queen you will, I believe, read, 
and I assuredly write it, with the greatest satisfaction 
to us both. If she would only marry, she would leave 
no room for higher commendation ; and I wish, my 
Sturmius, that you would call forth all that power 
which you have derived from the best sources both of 
wisdom and eloquence, whether of reasoning from 
Demosthenes, or of diction from Cicero, to persuade 
her to this step. No cause more honourable can be 
undertaken by you than this, nor can any greater 
power of persuasion be desired by me, than that 
which you possess. We desire her to make choice 
of whomsoever she pleases ; we do not wish other 
persons to point out any individual for her acceptance, 
and we are all of us in favour of one of our own 
countrymen in preference to a stranger. I would 
have you know these things, in case you should ever 
feel disposed to consider the subject : for should she 
but add this single benefit to the number of those she 
has already conferred upon this country, and which 
I have just now mentioned, no nation can be more 
happy than ours. . . . 



CHAPTER VI 

ELIZABETH AND MARY SWORN FRIENDS 

Elizabeth Helps the Huguenots and Hopes to Recover Calais — Plot 
Against the Spanish Ambassador — Betrayed by his Secretary 
— Rumours of Elizabeth's Marriage with Dudley — Failure of 
Proposed Meeting between Mary and Elizabeth — An Exchange 
of Diamonds — Arthur Pole's Abortive Plot — The Treaty of 
Hampton Court — Elizabeth's Letter to Mary on the Subject — 
Her Dangerous Illness — Solemn Protest Regarding Dudley — 
Mary Stuart's Expedition Against Huntly — Declares Unalterable 
Friendship for Elizabeth — Knox Denounces Her Amusements — 
Bothwell Escapes from Edinburgh and is Arrested in England — 
The English Expedition to France — Fall of Rouen — Elizabeth's 
Encouragement to Warwick — The Disaster of Dreux — 
Princess of Conde's Appeal to Elizabeth — Assassination of the 
Duke of Guise — Parliament Petitions Elizabeth to Settle the 
Succession Problem — Her Reply — New Laws and the " Thirty- 
nine Articles." 

The correspondence of the spring of 1562 between 
England and Scotland is full of the projected meeting 
between the two Queens which was destined never to take 
place. All might still have been well but for the massacre 
of Vassy on March 1, and the cry of the Huguenots for 
help, which must needs be answered before Mary's claims 
could be attended to — for was there not also a fair chance of 
recovering Calais thereby ? That was the price of English 
intervention after the incident of Vassy had set fire to the 
first French war of religion, the agreement being that in 
return for helping the Huguenots with men and money 
England was to hold Havre until Calais was restored. 
Elizabeth's Council was long divided on the subject, but 
eventually she succeeded in forcing them into what Professor 
Pollard has described as perhaps the greatest blunder of her 
reign. Quadra was told that the Queen was quite furious at 
the decisive Council meeting, and replied to those who 
opposed this expedition that " if they were so much afraid 
that the consequences of failure would fall upon them, she 
herself would take all the risk, and would sign her name to 

Q2 



228 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

it." * There were many excuses for Elizabeth's eagerness. 
She hated the Guises who had started the war ; appalling 
tales reached her of Catholic atrocities elsewhere in France ; 
and Philip, who was known to be helping the Guises, was 
assuredly practising, according to Throckmorton, "to put 
his foot in Calais." 2 Froude gives the rest of Throck- 
morton's letter as follows : 

SIR NICHOLAS THROCKMORTON TO SIR WILLIAM 

CECIL. 

[Froude's "History of England."] 

Paris, April 17, 1562. 

. . . Your Majesty doth see the present state here 
which is in such terms as it behoveth you greatly, 
well to consider and deeply to weigh what may 
ensue ; and whether it be meet in this dangerous 
and captious time to have any interview this summer 
betwixt your Majesty and the Queen of Scotland. 
Already the ambassador of Spain hath within these 
three days used such language to the Queen-Mother 
as she may conceive the King his master doth mind 
to make war to repress the Prince of Conde, if the 
King her son and she will not — as one that saith he 
hath such interest in the crown of France by the 
marriage of his wife, and in respect of the conservation 
of the Christian religion, as that he will not suffer 
the same to fall into ruin and danger by heresy and 
sedition. It may chance that in these garboyls some 
occasion may be offered as that again you may be 
brought into possession of Calais, or of some port 
of consequence of this side ; but howsoever things 
fall out, it standeth your Majesty upon for your own 
surety and reputation, to be well aware that the 
Prince of Conde and his followers be not in this 
realm overthrown. I shall not need to make any 
long discourse unto your Majesty who is so well 
advised, but only put you in remembrance what 
profit, surety, and credit your Majesty hath obtained 

1 Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. L, p. 259. 

2 Foreign Calendar : Elizabeth, IV., p. 609. 



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CATHERINE DE MEDICI 



SWORN FRIENDS 229 

by maintaining your friends and such as concur with 
you in religion in the realm of Scotland. 

Assuredly although this papistical complot did 
begin here first to break out, yet the plot thereof 
was large and intended to be executed and practised 
as well in your Majesty's realm as Scotland and 
elsewhere. It may please your Majesty the Papists 
within these two days at Sens in Normandy have 
slain and hurt two hundred persons — men and 
women. Your Majesty may perceive how dangerous 
it is to suffer Papists that be of great heart and 
enterprise to lift up their crests so high. 

At first Elizabeth tried to mediate, but Sir Henry Sidney's 
mission to Catherine de' Medici was foredoomed to failure, 
and Dudley, equally ready to trim his sails to a Catholic or 
Protestant breeze, assured Conde of his own and the Queen's 
interest in the Huguenot cause. The new turn of affairs 
made it clear to Quadra that Spain must now abandon all 
hope of profiting by a marriage between Dudley and the 
Queen : 

BISHOP QUADRA TO CARDINAL DE GRANVELLE. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, April 3, 1562. 

It is, in my opinion, already too late for his Majesty 
to favour Robert in his marriage affairs, as I am sure 
that his Majesty would lose the support of all the 
Catholics here if it were seen that help were given 
him without any stipulation for the restoration of 
religion. It would also greatly offend Robert's 
enemies, while neither he nor the Queen would be 
bound to anything. She desires not to act in accord 
with his Majesty, as will have been seen by her 
behaviour in this case and all others, and I have 
already pointed out that the letter they requested 
was only to smooth over all difficulties here and 
carry out their intentions. She thinks she can 
marry, or unmarry even if she likes, now that she 
has the support of the heretics here and in France, 



230 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

and knows the trouble our affairs are in in the 
Netherlands. I am certain that this Queen has 
thought and studied nothing else since the King 
sailed for Spain but how to oust him from the 
Netherlands, and she believes the best way to effect 
this is to embroil them over there on religious 
questions, as I wrote months ago. God grant that 
there may be none there (in Flanders) who wish the 
same. As to the French, heretics and others, there 
is no doubt about their desires in the matter, and 
the Germans will certainly help to the same end. 
To this may be added that they can only be certain 
of the Queen of Scots and the Catholic faction in 
this way. Her (Elizabeth's) natural inclination is 
inimical to the King, and always has been so. She 
believes at once anything she is told to our prejudice, 
and all my attention and flattery, even in Robert's 
affair which she has so much at heart, have been 
powerless to bring her round to his Majesty's side, 
although I have certainly spared nothing, and cannot 
reproach myself with omitting anything in this matter 
which tended to the service of God and the King. 

Quadra was never so badly treated as at this period. His 
letters were intercepted ; his Secretary, named Borghese, 
betrayed all his secrets to the Queen's ministers ; and he 
was openly charged, among other things, with turning his 
residence, Durham House, into a hotbed of Catholic and 
Irish conspiracy against the crown. In spite of his cloth 
the Bishop would probably have killed his betrayer rather 
than that this should have happened : 

BISHOP QUADRA TO THE DUKE OF ALBA. 
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. II.] 

London, June 6, 1562. 

I am greatly troubled about a disaster that has 
happened in my house. It is a case of a servant of 
mine who has been bribed by the Queen's ministers 
and has divulged a host of things prejudicial to 
private persons and, even in public matters, has laid 



SWORN FRIENDS 231 

more on to me than he could truthfully do. It has 
been impossible to prevent this inconvenience, as the 
promises they have made him have been so great, and 
his wickedness so reckless, that nothing would make 
him turn back, and, as for punishing him by taking his 
life by extraordinary means, apart from its being so 
foreign to my profession, I thought it would probably 
give rise to greater scandal, and enable them to say 
more than they can say now. I could satisfy the 
Queen about it if she would hear me, but, being a 
woman and ill-informed by the leading men in her 
Council, she is so shocked that I do not know to what 
lengths she will go. I am trying to get her to expel 
this bad man from the country, as she ought to do in 
fulfilment of the treaties, but she will not hear of it, 
which distresses me more than anything else, as it is 
against the honour and dignity of his Majesty, besides 
being an intolerable insult to me. I send this courier 
to ask his Majesty for redress, and I beg your 
Excellency, in view of what I write to the King, to 
consider whether the case is one in which your 
Excellency can favour me. My private honour being 
impugned, as well as his Majesty's service, I verily 
hope that your Excellency will not leave me unpro- 
tected, and will endeavour that this unavoidable 
accident shall not injure me in what is of most 
importance, namely, his Majesty's gracious favour. 
The affair has made so much noise, and aroused 
suspicion in so many breasts, that it would not be 
surprising if the treason of this man were to do more 
harm to the Queen than to me, for my residence here 
is so distasteful to the heretics that they have done 
nothing for the last year but try to get me out of 
the country, and if his Majesty does not intend to 
assist in these affairs the best way would be to satisfy 
them. I again beg of your Excellency not to abandon 
me in this business, or to allow this great insult 
offered to me by the Queen to go unredressed. 

There was nothing for it but to face the situation boldly, and 
Quadra was never afraid to do that. It was all in his favour 



232 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

that the secrets revealed by his Secretary would implicate 
not only a number of the Queen's noblemen, but also the 
Queen and Dudley themselves in regard to their secret 
dealings with Spain in the matter of matrimony : 

BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, June 20, 1562. 
Since writing to your Majesty on the 6th instant 
by Gamboa the courier, I have spoken with the 
Queen, who tried to hide her anger with me, but 
could not refrain from telling me that she was going 
to complain to your Majesty of me for the bad offices I 
did in always writing ill of her and her affairs. I told 
her that as she had my servant in her house, and he 
had revealed more than it was meet for her to know, 
and as against all precedent she thought fit to call 
me to account for my communications to your 
Majesty, I thought it was time that I also should 
speak plainly and tell her that my dispatches to your 
Majesty, good or bad, had all been consequent on her 
own proceedings, and I had treated her matters with 
your Majesty in accordance therewith in all honesty 
and straightforwardness. If this did not meet with 
her approval, it was at all events in accord with my 
duty to God and your Majesty, and satisfactory to 
my own conscience. She tried to convince me by 
citing particular cases, and at last said I could not 
deny that I had sent Dr. Turner to Flanders to try to 
get her turned off the throne and substitute others 
(meaning Lady Margaret). I told her I had sent the 
Doctor to arrange my private affairs, and took the 
opportunity of his going (he being a person well 
informed of events here) to tell him to give an 
account of the Duchess of Parma of the state of the 
French negotiations and designs in this country, 
which might be directed to securing the adherence of 
Lady Margaret to their side by taking her son and 
marrying him in France, by which means, even if the 
Queen of Scotland, who was then in bad health, were 



SWORN FRIENDS 233 

to die, they would still have some claim to a footing 
in this country. These things were of such a 
character that I could not avoid informing your 
Majesty of them and warning the Duchess, seeing 
that war was being prepared between the King of 
France and her (the Queen), he having again taken 
the title and arms of King of England, and 
publicly announced his intention to invade England, 
as I was assured by the Bishop of Valence and M. de 
Randau when they returned from Scotland. 

I said the fault of my not communicating these 
things to her at the time was entirely her own, as she 
would never allow M. de Glajon or myself to have 
anything to do with her affairs, or exert your Majesty's 
interest in her favour, but actually told Glajon and 
me that 3 r our Majesty was her secret enemy. As I 
saw, however, that she excluded me from her counsels, 
and that the peace she had concluded with France 
wasonly a make believe, andwar with thiscountry would 
lead to the breaking of the peace elsewhere, I had 
only done my duty in obtaining all information as to 
the pretensions and claims of the various possible 
heirs to the crown, and their respective characters, 
designs, and connexion, to enable your Majesty to 
adopt such steps as might be necessary. This was 
during the life of King Francis, when war was to be 
feared, but since his death I had written about nothing 
but her marriage with Lord Robert (which if it had not 
yet been effected was from no lack of good offices on 
my part) and the question of the Nuncio and her 
taking part in the Concilio, and she knew well that 
these two matters had been dealt with in a sincere 
desire to serve her, and also the way I had been 
treated in return. She tried to find excuses for what 
I said, but in vain, and at last I said that as I desired 
to satisfy and convince her I should accept it as a 
favour if she would have me informed of the things my 
servant had said to my detriment, in order that I 
might tell her frankly the truth, but that if she did not 
want to be satisfied, it would suffice for me to give an 



234 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

account of my actions to your Majesty, and as for the 
rest, she could do as she thought fit. She answered 
that she would send someone who could tell me, and 
subsequently the Lord Chamberlain and Dr. Wotton 
came to my house, who told me verbally what 
is contained in the statement I send herewith, 
and I answered to the effect of the copy also 
enclosed, reserving to myself however the right of 
replying at length to the Queen when I should see 
her. 

I have thought well to advise your Majesty in detail 
of all this in order that an answer may be given to 
the Queen's ambassador when he speaks on the 
subject. The most important part of the affair is the 
information the servant has given them about Turner's 
report, which remained in the possession of this man 
after Turner died in Brussels at a lodging occupied 
by both of them. Although I got back the original 
in the doctor's own handwriting, this man must have 
kept a copy by means of which, and a few drafts he 
has stolen from time to time since he has been here, 
he is now able to do all this harm. The evil will 
greatly increase after the summer, because just now 
they are afraid of a rising, and of the aid your 
Majesty might extend to the Catholics, and do not 
dare to arrest those whose names are mentioned in 
the report. I am informed that the Councillors are 
much annoyed that the Queen revealed to me the 
secret of this report, as they think I may warn those 
whose names are mentioned in it, and this is the 
reason that the Chamberlain and Wotton did not 
mention it to me. . . . With respect to expelling the 
servant from the country they tell me the Queen will 
not fail to do what is right, so I have thought well 
not to refer to it again until I know your Majesty's 
wishes. The Queen's action is overbearing and 
unprecedented in this case, and I am told moreover, 
that she had promised this bad man an income of 
400 ducats and a good marriage as the payment for 
his treason, although she denies it. 



SWORN FRIENDS 235 

The Lord Chamberlain and Dr. Wotton charged Quadra, 
among other things, with writing to Philip that the Queen 
had been secretly married to Lord Robert at the Earl of 
Pembroke's house. To this Quadra replied : 

What I wrote to his Majesty about this was the 
same as I said to the Queen, which was that people 
were saying all over the town that the wedding had 
taken place. This at the time neither surprised nor 
annoyed her, and she said it was not only people out- 
side of the palace who had thought such a thing, as, on 
her return that afternoon from the Earl's house, her 
own ladies in waiting when she entered her chamber 
with Lord Robert asked whether they were to kiss 
his hand as well as hers ; to which she had told them 
no, and that they were not to believe what people 
said. In addition to this Robert told me two or three 
days after that the Queen had promised to marry him, 
but not this year. She had told me also, with an oath, 
that if she had to marry an Englishman, it should only 
be Robert. I had refrained from communicating these 
details to his Majesty for the sake of decorum, and I do 
not think, considering what others say of the Queen, 
that I should be doing her any injury in writing to his 
Majesty that she was married, which in fact I never 
have written, and I am sorry I cannot do so with truth. 1 

By which the Bishop was probably hinting at the repeated 
reports that Elizabeth had already had children by Dudley. 
The storm temporarily blew over, but the clouds which were 
gathering so thickly over divided France were now at burst- 
ing point, and all hope of the meeting with Mary — for the 
time being at all events — was at an end. It had been pro- 
visionally fixed for some date in August or September, but on 
July 15 Elizabeth wrote postponing it until the following 
summer, " the lets and hindrances from foreign parts being 
beyond our power to remedy." Both Queens, however, were 
at considerable pains to assure each other that whatever 
happened in France should make no difference to their own 
sisterly love. All Mary's political plans had revolved round 

1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 248. 



236 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

this promised meeting. The mysterious affair in which the 
now demented Arran accused Bothwell of plotting to carry 
her off by force from Holyrood, and handing her over to 
Arran himself at Dunbarton Castle, must have raised hideous 
doubts in her mind as to her personal safety, and the loyalty 
of her nobles. She had sent Lethington to Elizabeth in June 
in the hope of arranging the interview, and Elizabeth had 
given her consent, but Mary realised, as Randolph told Cecil in 
one of his letters, that the French troubles would probably 
upset their plans. Whether the meeting took place or not, 
however, she professed to be overjoyed at the letter which 
Elizabeth herself sent her at this time : 

THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.] 

Edinburgh, June 17, 1562. 

I have received your letters and the packet from 
Lethington to his sovereign. The long space between 
their date and delivery to me — eight days — made 
me think the posts do not their duties, and many 
times I have marked the like. Being delivered me 
at Edinburgh at the end of my dinner, upon Sunday, 
I gave them myself to the Queen at her rising from 
table after supper at Dunfermline. In the packet 
from Lethington there was a letter to her from the 
Queen's Majesty, which first she read, and then put it 
into her bosom next unto her skin, which I did not so 
well mark then as after. After she had read Lething- 
ton's letter, containing his whole discourse with the 
Queen and her Council, she declared to Lord Mar 
and me the effect of both these letters, and seemed so 
well contented that neither of us needed to add any- 
thing more. As in her letter from Lethington there 
was no news of France, she desired to know what we 
heard, wherein we had as little to say as she, and 
showed both our letters. Then she entered with me 
privately whether the interview was like to take effect 
this year or not ? Whereto I said that Lethington 
more than I could give judgment on, being so far from 



SWORN FRIENDS 237 

the chief place of resolution. The chief impediments 
were (i)the shortness of time, and (2) the troubles 
in France — I knew no others. 

With this she seemed somewhat satisfied ; " And 
above other things," said she, " I desire to see my 
good sister, and next that we may live like good sisters 
together, as your mistress hath written unto me that 
we shall. I purpose," said she, " to send La Croc to 
your mistress, and then farther about some business 
of mine own. I have here," said she, " a ring with 
a diamond fashioned like a heart. I know nothing 
that can resemble my good will unto my good sister 
better than that — my meaning shall be expressed in 
writing in a few verses, which you shall see before 
you depart, and whatsoever lacketh therein, let it be 
reported by your writing. I will," said she, " witness 
the same with my own hand, and call God to record 
that I speak it as I think it with my heart, that 
I do as much rejoice of that continuance of 
friendship that I trust shall be between the Queen my 
sister and me, and the people of both realms, as ever 
I did in anything in my life." With these words she 
took out of her bosom the Queen's Majesty's letter, 
and after reading a line or two, put it in the same 
place, saying, "If I could put it nearer my heart, I 
would." " Now," said she, " I have somewhat to do 
more than I had, for now either I must alter my letter 
that I purposed to send by La Croc, or else I must 
write anew." Somewhat she also said of what 
Lethington had written of the difficulty found by 
divers of the Queen's Majesty's Council — allowing it 
well, considering their duties and place. 

Next morning she delivered me a letter from Lord 
Hume, advertising that my sovereign had her ships 
ready with 8,000 men, it was thought to support the 
Protestants, except under that colour there was any 
other pretence. When her Grace saw me laugh at 
that : " Well " said she, " you know that my Lord 
Hume hath a castle to keep — I will not be very hasty 
to believe, nor I doubt no such danger as he meaneth, 



238 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

and I trust that for the matters of France, they will 
be accorded, so that your mistress shall not need to 
be at any such charge." There are many such tales, 
and no day without some news to make her doubt the 
amity, or of tumults among themselves, or some mis- 
chief or other. But she is now so well accustomed to 
the like, that she promises to give no hasty credit to 
them. She required me to stay my writings one day, 
that La Croc might deliver them, lest I think some 
news of her present might reach my sovereign's ears 
before arrival of the bearer. 

According to Dr. Jewel it was the Duke of Guise himself 
who was responsible for Mary's enthusiastic advances at this 
period : 

BISHOP JEWEL TO HENRY BULLINGER. 
["Zurich Papers.'" First Series.] 

Salisbury, August 14, 1562. 

... As the Duke of Guise, by holding out I know 
not what hope of settling the affairs of religion, and 
receiving the confession of Augsburg, has prevented 
the princes of Germany from intermeddling in this 
war ; so he has endeavoured by all possible means to 
persuade our Queen that the present contest in 
France is not about matters of religion, but that 
there is an evident conspiracy against the govern- 
ment ; that it is the cause of the King, whom, as 
being herself also invested with royal authority, she 
ought not to oppose. Meanwhile he has caused his 
niece, the Queen of Scotland, to court the favour and 
friendship of our Queen, and send her presents, and 
make I know not what promises ; — that she purposes 
this summer to come upon a visit of honour into 
England, and to establish a perpetual treaty of 
friendship, never to be dissolved. She has sent her 
a diamond of great value, a most beautiful gem, set 
in gold, and accompanied by some beautiful and 
elegant verses. 1 What next ? They seem to suppose 

1 Written by Buchanan, then in Mary's Court. Elizabeth in return 
sent Mary the rock-shaped diamond which the Scottish Queen 



SWORN FRIENDS 239 

that by festive interviews, and hunting matches, and 
flatteries, our attention will easily be diverted from 
the noise of war, and lulled to sleep. In the mean 
time our Queen, when she saw through the whole 
affair, and perceived what was doing, (and this was 
not a matter of much difficulty,) changed her purpose 
respecting her progress, gradually withdrew her 
alliance with the Guises, and not obscurely intimated 
her determination to assist the Prince of Conde. The 
Duke of Guise was very angry at this interruption 
to his designs, and received our ambassador with 
reproaches ; and declared by a public proclamation 
that the Queen of England was planning intrigues 
against the Kingdom of France, and that she alone 
had occasioned those disorders. Our Queen could 
not bear this charge with patience, nor indeed ought 
she to have done. She forthwith began to act with 
openness, as I hear, to recall her ambassador, to 
enlist troops, to dismast all vessels, both English and 
foreign, from whatever place, or wherever they might 
be, to prevent their getting away, and giving informa- 
tion of what she was doing. Oh ! if she had acted in 
this manner some time since, or if the German 
princes would even now follow her example, the 
whole business would have been settled much more 
easily, and with much less waste of christian blood. 
And indeed the Queen has now sent into Germany, 
to the princes : and there is now at Court an 
ambassador from Guise, with new blandishments, as 
I suppose, to delay and hinder us. But it will not, I 
think, be so easy a matter to deceive people with 
their eyes open. 

The affairs of Scotland, as to religion, are tolerably 
quiet. The Queen alone retains her Mass, contrary 
to the general wish. There has been here, throughout 
the whole of this present year, an incredibly bad season 
both as to the weather and the state of the atmo- 

afterwards regarded as sufficient warrant for her safety when she 
fled to England, complaining subsequently how bitterly she was 
deceived therein. 



240 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

sphere. Neither sun, nor moon, nor winter, nor spring, 
nor summer nor autumn, have performed their appro- 
priate offices. It has rained so abundantly, and almost 
without intermission, as if the heavens could hardly 
do any thing else. Out of this contagion monstrous 
births have taken place ; infants with hideously 
deformed bodies, some being quite without heads, 
some with heads belonging to other creatures ; some 
born without arms, legs, or shin-bones ; some were 
mere skeletons, entirely without flesh, just as the image 
of death is generally represented. Similar births have 
been produced in abundance from swine, mares, cows, 
and domestic fowls. The harvest is now coming on, 
rather scanty indeed, but yet so as we have not much 
to complain of. 

Yours in Christ, 

John Jewel, Anglus. 

Such a season of phenomenal births could scarcely be 
expected to pass without at least one still-born plot against 
the English crown. The sorry hero of this abortive affair 
was Arthur Pole, eldest son of that Sir Geoffrey Pole who, 
under Henry VIII. was tortured into the confession which sent 
his brother, Sir Henry Pole, and others, to the block. Young 
Pole had been encouraged by the Catholics to pose as a 
claimant of the crown because of a Protestant scheme to 
set up as Elizabeth's successor his own cousin, Lord Hunt- 
ingdon, who, as Quadra told King Philip, was farther removed 
from the throne : 

BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, September 15, 1562. 

Arthur Pole, nephew of the late Cardinal Pole, son 
of his brother Geoffrey, is determined to leave England 
on pretext of religion, but the truth is that he is going 
to try his fortune, and pretend to the Crown, with the 
help of the Catholics here. His claim is not worth 
much, but his indignation has been aroused, and 
ambition encouraged, at seeing that the heretics want 



SWORN FRIENDS 241 

to make the Earl of Huntingdon king, who is the 
son of a niece of the Cardinal, and, in fact, if the 
crown came to the descendants of the Duke of 
Clarence, which they call the house of the White 
Rose, he (Pole) would be one degree nearer than 
Huntingdon, as will be seen by the genealogical tree 
I sent your Majesty last year. This lad is turbulent 
and not very prudent, but spirited and daring. They 
say he is poor, and his relations are poorer still, but 
the Earl of Northumberland has given him a sister 
of his in marriage, and Lord Loughborough keeps 
him in his house and treats him as his son, so help 
will not be lacking for the enterprise. He sent word 
to me that if your Majesty would entertain and 
employ him he would place himself at your Majesty's 
disposal with a dozen young gentlemen of high 
position, and he asked me for a letter to Madame, 
with assistance for him to leave the country. I 
excused myself from granting either request as well 
as I could without offending him, and he then went 
to the French ambassador and offered himself for 
the present war. The ambassador also excused him- 
self, and advised him not to go to France by telling 
him that the Guises, through their connexion with 
the Queen of Scotland, would not like to see another 
pretender to the English throne. I think, neverthe- 
less, that he will leave here. The French ambassadjr 
had some conversation with me about it, and unthink- 
ingly asked for information about the persons 
interested. It is possible the French may receive 
Pole to further embarrass the Queen. He pretends 
to be able to do a great deal, and really if he obtained 
support he could be very troublesome. 

Notwithstanding the French ambassador's advice young 
Pole decided to volunteer for service in the French war 
against the Huguenots, in the hope of winning the support 
of the Guises against Elizabeth. The plot was discovered 
just as he was on the point of embarking for France with 
his brother Walter and a few followers. They were all 

E.M.S. R 



242 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

thrown into the Tower. It was then confessed that their 
scheme was to land a force in Wales and there proclaim 
Mary Stuart as rightful Queen of England, Arthur Pole 
being ready to make over to her such claims as he possessed 
on the understanding that she would revive in his favour the 
dukedom of Clarence. Their defence was " that they meant 
it not before the sovereign Queen should die, which, as they 
were persuaded by one Prestall, should be about March " 
(see p. 265). Neither of the Poles was executed, but, kept in 
the Tower, both died there some eight years later. 

On September 20 the Huguenots concluded with Elizabeth, 
through the Vidame de Chartres, the Treaty of Hampton 
Court, by which England was bound to lend them assistance 
both with men and money, and to hold the town and port of 
Havre (called Newhaven by the English) with an English 
garrison until the restoration of Calais. The chief command 
of the expedition was placed in the hands of Dudley's elder 
brother, whom the Queen had created Earl of Warwick in 
December of the preceding year, thus restoring to the family 
the title which had ceased with the attainting of their father, 
the Duke of Northumberland. The real object of the expedi- 
tion is not far to seek in Cecil's letter to his now unknown 
correspondent : 

SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO . 

[Wright's "Elizabeth and her Times.'''''] 

October n, 1562. 

I know very well that your abode there, without 
oftener advertisements from hence, must needs be 
grievous unto you, and yet the only fault hereof is 
these varieties of the affairs in France, which have so 
turned both ourselves and our Councils here into so 
many shapes from time to time, as I could never, 
until this present, make any certain account what I 
might write to you hereof. 

True it is that for my own part I have used all the 
advice I could to procure some quiet end in these 
French matters, because I have seen from the begin- 
ning that the process of them one way ended would 
be a beginning of our troubles, and as it may appear 



SWORN FRIENDS 243 

unto you, when the Guisians would give no ear, but 
follow their intents by force. It hath been seen 
meet to the Queen's Majesty, by the advice of all 
her Council, to set in her foot, and to preserve the 
miserable state of her poor neighbours in Normandy 
with a buckler of her defence. 

The matter hath been long in consultation, and 
divers times broken off, with hope of some good end 
in France ; but now finding that desperate, the 
Queen's Majesty hath determined to send over the 
Earl of Warwick, with six thousand footmen, three 
thousand with himself to Newhaven [Havre], and the 
other three to Dieppe. It is meant to keep Newhaven 
in the Queen's possession until Calais be either 
delivered, or better assurance of it than presently 
we have. And herein both justice and policy shall 
maintain our actions : for as for Calais, because the 
French have broken the treaty with us, we may be bold 
presently to demand it, and if, thereof arguments 
shall arise, I think the Queen's Majesty need not be 
ashamed to utter her right to Newhaven as parcel 
of the Duchy of Normandy. 

Nothing is meant here on our part to make any 
invasion, but to enter quietly into these places, which 
by law of arms we may, considering we take none of 
them by force ; and as long as the French shall give 
no other cause, it is meant to use no war towards 
them, but to allow of mutual traffic betwixt both the 
nations. 

By the Queen's Majesty's letter to that King, and 
her private unto you, and by the declaration which also 
shall be sent you with another writing delivered by 
her Majesty to her Lieutenant now sent into Nor- 
mandy, you shall well understand the causes of her 
Majesty's doings, as the same may be avowed to 
the world ; and of all these two principally, — one 
to stay the Duke of Guise, as our sworn enemy, 
from his singular superiority, the other to procure 
us the restitution of Calais, or something to counter- 
vail it. 

R 2 



244 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

The last month Mr. Henry Knollys was sent into 
Germany with commission to join with Christopher 
Mundt, and to solicit the Protestant princes both to 
aid the Prince of Conde, and to consider how the 
common cause of religion might be defended against 
any common confederacy of the enemy. . . . 

The matters betwixt the Queen's Majesty, and the 
Queen of Scots, rests in these terms. The Queen's 
Majesty was contented in June to accord upon an 
interview in August with the Queen of Scots, coming 
to Nottingham, so as the matters in France look 
good ; and before the last of July, and because at 
that time the troubles grew to be more desperate, the 
interview was disappointed, and so excuse was sent 
to the Queen of Scots by Sir Henry Sidney, with 
offer to meet at York betwixt midsummer and the 
end of August, which is like to succeed as the planets 
of France shall be disposed. And nevertheless I find 
the Queen's Majesty here so well disposed to keep 
amity with the Queen of Scots, as surely the default 
of their two agreements shall not grow from the 
Queen here. 

Her Majesty writeth to her at this present, and 
maketh such distinction in her proceedings, as on 
the one part she maketh her well assured of her love 
towards her, and on the other she noteth plainly and 
frankly her offence towards the Guises, which she so 
tempereth by her letters of her own device to the 
Queen of Scots, as I think she shall have cause to 
think well of the Queen's Majesty, and to lament her 
uncle's foolish proceedings. The said Queen of Scots, 
upon the disappointment of the interview, made her 
progress into the north parts of Scotland, where she 
hath, as I hear, ministered both justice, and lost not 
by her journey, as you know the Queen her mother 
was wont to do upon the frontiers. The intelligence 
betwixt this and that realm remaineth in the same 
good terms as heretofore it did, and so is like to 
continue, as I think, until the French seed be sown 
to make division. . . . 



SWORN FRIENDS 245 

It is amusing to compare Cecil's straightforward tone 
with the florid style in which Elizabeth sought to convince 
Mary of the righteousness of his decision to help the 
Huguenots — a word, apparently, which she had never heard 
before : 

QUEEN ELIZABETH TO MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS. 

[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.] 

October 15, 1562. 

Very dear Sister, 

If it were not impossible that one should forget 
her own heart, I should fear you thought I had 
drunk the water of Lethe ; but I assure you that, 
besides there is no such river in England, you are 
the chief cause of the fault. For the long delay in 
the arrival of your messenger prevented my writing 
as formerly. And hearing you were on such long 
pilgrimage, I thought it would hinder you ; as 
another occasion restrained me from writing of the 
tragedies every week brought to my ears. On my 
honour I assure you that until the ravens croaked, 
I kept the stopped ears of Ulysses. But when I saw 
that my councillors and subjects thought me too 
much beguiled, my intellect gone astray and mind 
improvident, I awoke from slumber, thinking myself 
unworthy to govern my kingdom if I could not be 
Prometheus in my affairs, as I have known Epi- 
metheus. But remembering how it greatly touched 
your's, my God ! how I felt at heart — not for them, 
you know that well — but for that one to whom I wish 
all the good she can desire, greatly fearing lest you 
think these old sparks may fan this new fire. Not- 
withstanding, when I saw that necessity had no law, 
and that we must guard our houses from spoil, when 
our neighbours are burning, I had no suspicion but 
you would lift the veil from nature and look at the 
bare course of reason. For what hope can be in 
strangers when cruelty so abounds in a family ? 
I pass over in silence the murders on land, the 
burials in water, and say nothing of men cut in 



246 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

pieces ; but pregnant women strangled, with the 
sighs of infants at their mothers' breasts, pierce me 
through. 1 What drug of rhubarb can purge the bile 
which these tyrannies engender ? In these broils 
my own subjects have lost their goods, ships and 
lives, and received a new name, formerly unknown 
to me, c'est Hugenots. 2 The faults charged on the 
poor soldiers, will remain on the wicked chiefs, who 
though daily admonished, instead of correcting one 
evil, do twenty ! My letters from the King and 
Queen Mother show me he is only King in title. 
I cannot suffer such evils, as a good neighbour. 
You shall have no occasion to charge me with 
deceit, having never promised what I will not per- 
form. If I send my people to these foreign ports, 
I have no other end than to help the King. Think 
of me as honourably as my good will to you merits ; 
and though I know what finesse has been and will 
be used, to draw you from the affection I am assured 
you bear me, yet I trust so much in this heart which 
I preserve 3 — that sooner shall rivers surmount their 
channels than it shall alter its intention. My hot 
fever prevents me writing more. 

The fever was far more serious than Elizabeth realised. 
On the very night after this letter was written Cecil was 
hurriedly sent for and told by the physician to prepare for 
the worst. It is easy to imagine the consternation which 
ensued when it was known that in the midst of all these 
trials and anxieties Elizabeth had developed small-pox and 
was like to die with the problem of the succession still 
unsolved. Quadra paints a vivid picture of the situation, 
and also bears witness to the Queen's solemn protest on 
her bed of sickness — obviously of far greater weight at such 

1 I have ventured to correct this sentence in the Scottish Calendar, 
which runs: "Pregnant women strangled, with the sighs of infants 
at mothers' breasts, do not stir me." Froude's translation from the 
original French agrees with the above. 

2 The origin of the word has been variously traced. By some it 
is from Hugues, a Genevese Calvinist, the French reformers being 
Calvin ists. 

3 The heart set with diamonds which Mary Stuart had sent 
Elizabeth (see pp. 237-8). 



SWORN FRIENDS 247 

a time than ordinarily — that " although she loved Lord 
Robert Dudley dearly, as God was her witness, nothing 
improper had ever passed between them " : 

BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

October 25, 1562. 

. . . The Queen was at Hampton Court on the 10th 
instant, and feeling unwell thought she would like a 
bath. The illness turned out to be small-pox, and 
the cold caught by leaving her bath for the air resulted 
in so violent a fever that on the seventh day she was 
given up, but during that night the eruption came 
out and she is now better. There was great excite- 
ment that day in the palace, and if her improvement 
had not come soon some hidden thoughts would have 
become manifest. The Council discussed the succes- 
sion twice, and I am told there were three different 
opinions. Some wished King Henry's will to be 
followed and Lady Catherine declared heiress. 
Others who found flaws in the will were in favour of 
the Earl of Huntingdon. Lord Robert, the Earl 
of Bedford, the Earl of Pembroke, and the Duke of 
Norfolk with others of the lower rank were in favour 
of this. The most moderate and sensible tried to 
dissuade the others from being in such a furious 
hurry, and said they would divide and ruin the 
country unless they summoned jurists of the greatest 
standing in the country to examine the rights of the 
claimants, and in accordance with this decision the 
Council should then unanimously take such steps as 
might be best in the interests of justice and the good 
of the country. The Marquis Treasurer (Winchester) 
was of this opinion with others, although only a few, 
as the rest understood that this was a move in favour 
of the Catholic religion, nearly all the jurists who 
would be called upon to decide being of that faith, and 
this delay would give time for your Majesty to take 
steps in the matter, which is the thing these heretics 



248 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

fear most, for upon your Majesty's absence they found 
all their hopes. 

During this discussion the Queen improved, and on 
recovering from the crisis which had kept her 
unconscious, and speechless for two hours, the first 
thing she said was to beg her Council to make Lord 
Robert protector of the kingdom with a title and an 
income of 20,000/. Everything she asked was 
promised, but will not be fulfilled. On the 20th he 
and the Duke of Norfolk were admitted to the 
Council, and it is said he will shortly be made Earl 
of la Marche (?). 

The Queen protested at the time that although she 
loved and had always loved Lord Robert dearly, as 
God was her witness, nothing improper had ever 
passed between them. She ordered a groom of the 
Chamber, called Tamworth, who sleeps in Lord 
Robert's room, to be granted an income of 500/. a 
year. She also especially recommended her cousin 
Hunsdon to the Council, as well as her household 
generally. This demonstration has offended many 
people. The various grants were made in the fear 
that another crisis might prove fatal, but as she is 
well again they all fall to the ground, except Lord 
Robert's favour, which always continues, and, as the 
Queen will not be visible for some time owing to the 
disfigurement of her face, the audiences will be all to 
him alone, except a few to the Duke (of Norfolk) 
whom they have forced into it. 

I think French affairs will be dealt with by 
Lord Robert in the way he has always advocated, 
namely, for peace and alliance. Your Majesty's 
affairs will be referred to the Duke, as they know he 
is friendly with me. The Queen was unable to see 
me for the purpose of receiving your Majesty's protest 
against the French war, but I had an interview with 
the Council, where I was received with some altera- 
tions and innovations, in the usual course, that were 
full of malicious intent. I was introduced by the 
Bishop of Rochester, and having read to them the 



SWORN FRIENDS 249 

document from your Majesty, Cecil spoke for the rest, 
and divided his answer under three heads. First, that 
the Queen, considering the Guises her enemies, 
and their excessive authority in France dangerous, 
was therefore determined to resist it. Secondly, 
that the King of France and his mother, being 
oppressed and almost prisoners, she was resolved to 
deliver them. 

Thirdly, that as her co-religionists in France were 
persecuted and ill-treated she had decided to aid them. 
I replied that I had nothing to say about the Guises, 
and as to the second point I could only say that it 
was extraordinary, false, and absurd. Everybody 
knew that it was not true, and it was nothing less 
than an insult to his Majesty (the King of Spain,) 
who, as they well knew, considered the present 
government of France a good and a just one, to call 
its acts tyranny and captivity. The King my master, 
I said would, if necessary, use all his strength to 
protect his brother-in-law. As to the last point about 
aiding their co-religionists, I said such a thing 
was so unreasonable and scandalous that I did not 
believe any one failed to see it, and to recognise 
how badly they were acting in picking a quarrel in 
this way, which was only setting all Christendom by 
the ears. 

I pointed out, too, how improper it was for the 
Queen to promote religious changes in other 
countries, and how much more seemly it was for a 
Christian ruler to protect the ancient and true 
Catholic faith established by the law, and punish all 
attempts to overturn it. 

Cecil thereupon began to treat the matter excitedly, 
confounding and mixing the various points, and made 
much of the Guises' share in the loss of Calais, of 
which he said they had robbed this country through 
your Majesty. I said Calais had been lost by those 
who defended it not knowing how to hold it, and not 
owing to any relationship of the French with your 
Majesty, as the Secretary inferred, and I thought it 



250 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

was very wrong that matters so unfit for open dis- 
cussion should be written about in pamphlets, and 
that all this was only to make your Majesty 
unpopular. 

The Secretary said that was so, as there was no 
person who did not know that that war had been 
made only to please your Majesty, and to the great 
danger of this country. I replied that members who 
were in the Council at the time of that war could 
vspeak of that best, as they were present now, when 
Pembroke, Arundel, and Clinton said that your 
Majesty and the Queen alone had wished for 
the war, and not a single member of the Council 
approved of it, followed by other angry and foolish 
expressions. 

While Elizabeth was sickening for the small-pox, Mary 
was so far siding with her Protestant lords as to suppress her 
chief Catholic noble, the Earl of Huntly, who died in arms 
against her at Corrichie, falling suddenly, as Randolph 
informed Cecil, " without blow or stroke, stark dead." 
Whether Mary had any ulterior motive in marching against 
Huntly — whether, as Knox believed, she was acting as an 
accomplice of Huntly in some deep-laid scheme which had 
begun with an end in view very different from Huntly's 
defeat and death, or was led by Lord James for his own 
aggrandizement, will never be known for certain, and the 
historians must be left to differ on the subject. Randolph, 
who accompanied her, and as Andrew Lang says, " a man 
not easily deceived," was convinced that Mary had become 
hostile to Huntly, and was intent on punishing him. His 
hot-headed son, John Gordon, whose unruly love for her was 
the cause of his undoing, was made prisoner, and afterwards 
executed at Aberdeen. It was to silence the rumours that 
she had encouraged him in his love that, at her brother's 
request, she witnessed his clumsy execution. Small wonder 
that she fainted at the hideous spectacle. Randolph found 
her in first-rate spirits, however, after declaring at the 
trial " how detestable a part Huntly thought to have used 
against her" : 



SWORN FRIENDS 251 

THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.] 

Aberdeen, November 2, 1562. 
On Thursday at her Grace's supper, I showed 
myself, and, immediately, as I entered the chamber 
where she sat: "Well sir," said she, "I know that 
you have writings for me from my good sister ; how 
will you answer unto your mistress that have kept 
them from me so long ? " I excused myself as loath 
to trouble her when occupied. " You might know," 
said she, " that nothing importeth me more than to 
hear from her, especially in these times — you know 
the occasion why." I answered I was not ignorant, 
and that delay could not hinder it. Her Grace spoke 
this that those about might gather that good will 
between my mistress and her Grace is so great as to 
be disadvantageous to any wishing evil to either. 
" Let me see," said she, "what you have for me." I 
said I had a great packet, too much for her to read 
before supper. " Let me but have a sight of it, and 
I will end my supper," said she. When I presented 
only a little letter; "What," said she, "if it be no 
more than this, I will defer it no longer ; it will help 
to digest my supper ; but," said she, " this is not my 
sister's own hand." I said whosoever wrote the 
superscription, the letter was her own handwriting. 
She guessed incontinently the superscription was 
your's, and on opening the letter, said she knew the 
hand well enough. She read the whole incontinently, 
her countenance being before prepared, that whatso- 
ever was contained in it no alteration should be found 
in her in the reading. After she had done, she passed 
the rest of supper in mirth, as at the beginning. 
Then she said — " Now Mr. Randolph I trust we shall 
the next year travel as far south as we have done 
north, with as much ease and more pleasure than we 
have had of this journey." I answered it would be 
much better, for the good success she had in that 
enterprise, and assured quiet at home, also a pleasant 
journey abroad, seeing nothing was intended but to 



252 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

the honour of God and weal of both countries, with 
my mistress's good will, and, I doubted not, her 
grace's. "There will be now," said she, "some 
better willing to go this year than was the 
last." She meant I suppose the Duke, who was 
confederate with the Earl against that purpose. 
After supper she entered her chamber, and called me 
aside, and said in this sort: "Mr. Randolph, is my 
sister sick ? " I showed her by my Lord Robert's 
and your letters, that she had the small-pox, which 
was very noisome unto her Majesty. She said it 
was a hot fever, and showed me the last line of my 
mistress's letter. When I resolved her of the truth, 
she said she was glad it was no worse, for though the 
disease were cumbersome, yet the danger was not 
great if good attendance were given to her Majesty. 

" But now," said she, "to other purpose ; we shall 
talk of this more hereafter. Your mistress, my sister, 
writeth unto me a long letter, of the which I take 
pleasure, though the matter be such as I am sorry 
for the occasion. She declareth the intention why 
she sendeth presently men into France, and her good 
will towards the French king, my good brother, and 
his subjects, whom she allegeth to be unjustly done 
unto by such as have at their own hand taken upon 
much more than became true subjects to their 
sovereign ; whereby the whole realm of France is 
disquieted, and her own state in danger, if such have 
the upper hand that have been the occasion of all 
these troubles ; as though there were in time as much 
intended against her Majesty as is now in hand and 
practice against other. Wherefore she would that I 
should lay aside all affection, and judge of her doings 
with a simple eye of reason, that I might be better 
able to judge of the cause with indifference, when all 
other motions were set apart. "Well," said she, 
" howsoever the matter be, Godknoweth my intention 
and mind I bear to my uncles, how I favour their 
doings ; and what I think of my good sister your 
mistress in this matter. God knoweth how indifferent 



SWORN FRIENDS 253 

I am to them both, but what I doubt may be the 
success of their enterprises. I will be plain with you, 
that I think the one doth nothing but by command- 
ment, and as by duty he is bound, and that the other 
might have as well provided for herself as to have 
entered into a new combination in the time of a 
young prince, whereof how good soever her meaning 
be, the worst will be always spoken and thought. I 
do rather therefore fear the success and dangers that 
may issue, than that I think there is any private 
malice in your mistress towards any man there. 
And yet I think not so evil of my uncles, but I must 
say this in their defence, that I believe they have no 
other purpose with them than that which ought to be 
in true subjects to their prince, and that they do 
nothing but that which is their sovereign's pleasure, 
and so to be judged of him how long soever he live. 
As I heartily wish them well, and by nature am bound 
so to do : so would I be loath to condemn all other 
that are not of my mind, or to mislike your mistress's 
doings so much, that in respect of any of my uncles' 
doings there, I would break friendship or give over 
kindness, seeing we are so far entered in amity the 
one with the other. So may you report of me, and 
you yourself may be judge of my mind, that know my 
doings. As she requireth me to weigh the matter 
with reason, so doubt I not but she will find it 
reasonable that I continue in love with them both, as 
by nature I am bound unto them both, and for 
their hearty kindness towards me do love them 
equally ; and so long as the action is common to 
more as well as it is to my uncles, I doubt no more of 
her evil will towards them, than I do to other that 
have travailed in this case as far as they ! " 

Huntly's death was a great blow to the waning strength 
of the Catholics in Scotland, and Mary depended more and 
more upon her Protestant leaders. She still found in Knox, 
however, an implacable foe, who construed all her light- 
headedness, and the love of gaiety which had grown with 



254 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

her life at the Court of France, as devil's handiwork, and 
raved because she refused to forsake the Mass. Yet Mary 
appeared to be in excellent spirits after her return from this 
exciting expedition to the North, where her only regret was, 
as Randolph says, " that she was not a man, to know what 
life it was to lie all night in the fields, or to walk on the 
causeway with a jack and knapsack, a Glasgow buckler, and 
a broadsword " : * 

THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.] 

Edinburgh, December, 1562. 

Mr. Knox has often told me he is to blame for not 
writing to your honour of long time, and lately 
required me to convey a letter to you. I know his 
good zeal and affection to our nation, and his great 
travail and care to unite the hearts of the princes and 
people in perpetual love and kindness. I know that 
he mistrusts more in his own sovereign's part than he 
does of ours. " He hath no hope " to use his own 
terms " that she will ever come to God, or do good in 
the commonwealth " ; he is so full of mistrust in all her 
doings, words, and sayings, as though he were either 
of God's privy counsel, that knew how he had deter- 
mined of her from the beginning, or that he knew the 
secrets of her heart so well that neither she did "or 
could have for ever one good thought of God or of His 
true religion ! " Of these matters we commune oft. 
I yield as much as in conscience I may unto him, 
though we in some things differ in judgment. His 
fear is that new strangers be brought into this realm. 
I fear and doubt the same, yet see no likelihood, nor 
can give any reason why, more than he. Whom she 
shall marry I cannot think, nor hear of none that go 
about her. Those that talk with me of Spain, can 
never make it sink into my head ; for the Swede, she 
says herself she will not, and the others farther off 
are like to take great pains for little profit ! So that 
by marriage I see not what number shall come to 
possess this realm again as before, or able to make 
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. L, p. 651. 



SWORN FRIENDS 255 

party against so many confirmed Protestants as are 
now here. If the Guises be victorious in France, the 
matter is more to be doubted, and that we fear most ; 
but God I trust hath stirred up such a party against 
him, that that shall pass his power, and no less befall 
him than in the end God sendeth unto all such blood- 
thirsty tyrants as he is ! 

As Mr. Knox hath opined unto your Honour his fear, 
so am I bold also to let your Honour know my opinion, 
both what cause he hath not so deeply to fear, nor so 
far to mistrust in the goodness of God, but that this 
woman may in time be called to the knowledge of His 
truth, or at the least that she have not that force to 
suppress His Evangelist here, or to break that amity 
and concord that is so well begun, and I trust shall 
take such progress that His glory may be known, 
and the posterity of both the realms rejoice for ever, 
and give Him thanks for the workers of the same. On 
Sunday last he inveighed sore against the Queen 
dancing and little exercise of herself in virtue or godli- 
ness. The report being brought to her ears yesterday 
she sent for him, and talked long time with him. 
Little liking there was between them of the one or the 
other, yet did they so depart as no offence or slander 
did rise thereupon. She willed him to speak his con- 
science, as he would answer before God, as she would 
also in her doings. 

It was about this time that Bothwell, who had escaped 
from prison after his arrest — to answer Arran's unsupported 
charge of conspiracy to carry off the Queen to Dumbarton — 
was arrested in England. The Duke of Chatelherault had 
himself begged Mary not to make Bothwell the victim of the 
wild charges of his demented son, but the Earl was kept 
imprisoned at Edinburgh while Mary was making her expedi- 
tion to the North. It was during her absence that he had burst 
the bars of his prison windows and escaped down the castle 
rock during the night of August 28th by means of a rope. 
The downfall of the Earl of Huntly and the proportionate 
increase of Lord James's rank and power decided him to 



256 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

return to France until the times were more propitious at 
home. As luck would have it his ship was driven by storms 
to seek shelter at Holy Island, near Berwick, where, being 
detained by Sir Thomas Dacre, he begged the Earl of 
Northumberland to solicit Elizabeth to retain him under her 
protection rather than have him delivered over to his enemies 
in Scotland. Elizabeth's form of protection was to lock him 
up safely in the Tower of London for more than a year. 
Doubtless she regarded him as a useful pawn to keep in reserve, 
as Quadra plainly hinted. Very probably, too, Elizabeth — 
or Cecil — remembered Throckmorton's words when Bothwell 
suddenly left France in the winter of 1560, boasting that he 
would do great things in Scotland : " He is a glorious, rash 
and hazardous young man ; and therefore it were meet his 
adversaries should both have an eye to him and also keep 
him short." 1 Randolph plainly hated him like poison : 

" I take it in good part" Mary told Randolph "that 
the Queen my good sister's officers for good will 
towards me, have apprehended the Lord Bothwell, who 
hath over greatly failed towards me ; wherefore I pray 
you write unto the Queen your mistress that I do desire 
that he may be sent hither again into Scotland, so 
shall the pleasure be great and I will with glad will 
requite the same." 2 Randolph promised to do as she 
requested, " and sought occasion to talk of other 
things, and took leave. So your Honour knows both 
her Grace's desire and the lord's. One thing I must 
not omit — I know him as mortal an enemy to our 
whole nation as any man alive, despiteful out of 
measure, false and untrue as a devil. If his power 
had been [equal] to the will he hath, neither the 
Queen's Majesty had stood in so good terms of amity 
with this Queen as she doth, nor minister left alive 
that should be a travailer between their Majesties for 
the continuance of the same. If I had made any 
account of his threatenings, or could have doubted 
his malice, your Honour had heard before this time 

1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 679. 

2 Hardwicke State Papers, Nov. 28, 1560. 



SWORN FRIENDS 257 

what just occasion I have had only to esteem him as 
here I report him to be, but also to seek that revenge 
which justly I ought to seek of an enemy to my 
country, a blasphemous and an irreverent speaker 
both of his own sovereign and the Queen's Majesty 
my mistress, and one that the godly of this whole 
nation hath a cause to curse for ever, that by that 
dishonourable and (not to offend your Honour's ears) 
thievish act that he committed against the Laird of 
Ormiston, adventured the loss of the chief nobility of 
this realm. You will pardon me thus angrily to write ; 
it is much less than I think or have good cause, or he 
should find if my power were [equal] to the mind I 
bear to all of his sort. 1 

In France, in the meantime, the English expedition had 
done little except to rouse the deep-rooted hatred of the 
nation against the intruders. Elizabeth would not send an 
army as far as Rouen, where help was badly needed, being 
content to hold Havre as security for Calais. Poynings, 
however, who went over with the first detachment of 3,000 
men, risked her displeasure by permitting five hundred 
men to make a desperate attempt to force their way to 
Rouen through the besieging army and reinforce the feeble 
garrison. They only succeeded with the loss of most of 
these gallant men, the rest struggling through only to fall in 
the final defence of the town. The news of this disaster was 
a heavy blow to English hopes. When Dudley first heard of 
it he did not dare to tell Elizabeth at once that Rouen had 
actually fallen. Her distress of mind at the bare possibility 
of such an event is apparent in the postscript, which she 
wrote with her own hand, to the letter of encouragement 
immediately forwarded by her Council to the Earl of Warwick : 

QUEEN ELIZABETH TO THE EARL OF WARWICK. 

[Strickland's "Lives of the Queens of England.'"'] 

My dear Warwick, 

If your honour and my desire could accord with 
the loss of the needfulest finger I keep, God so help 

Randolph to Cecil, Jan. 22, 1563, Scottish Calendar, Vol. I. 
E.M.S. S 



258 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

me in my utmost need, as I would gladly lose that 
one joint for your safe abode with me ; but since I 
cannot that I would, I will do that I may, and will 
rather drink in an ashen cup than you and yours 
should not be succoured, both by sea and land, and 
that with all speed possible ; and let this my scribbling 
hand witness it to them all. 

Yours as my own, 

E.R. 

A few lines like that tell us far more of the secret of 
Elizabeth's influence — the magic power that made men 
willing to do and dare anything for their liege lady's sake — 
than all the laboured metaphorical letters which it some- 
times pleased her Majesty to write. The loss of Rouen was 
followed on December 19 by the greater disaster of Dreux, 
at which battle at least 6,000 men were slain — the slaughter 
being great on both sides — and the Prince of Cond6 taken 
prisoner. " Except Almighty God show His arm and power," 
wrote Cecil to Sir Thomas Smith when news of this disaster 
reached him, " this web is undone and new to begin." 
The Princess of Conde wrote a pathetic letter to Elizabeth 
— here translated from the original French printed by Forbes 
— beseeching her Majesty's prompt assistance : 

THE PRINCESS OF COND£ TO QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

[Forbes' "Full View of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. ,"J 

[Orleans, January 5, 1563.] 
Madame, 

My uncle, Monsieur d'Andelot, is writing to you of 
the need which we have of your prompt favour and 
good succour, in order to prevent the fulfilment of 
the designs of the enemies of God and His Gospel, 
and the disturbers of the public peace of France ; 
and I am unable to restrain myself from accompany- 
ing his dispatch with this my letter, and humbly to 
entreat your Majesty to consider the affliction in 
which I find myself so sadly; seeing to-day how 
shamefully treated is Monsieur my husband, whom I 
honour and esteem more than anything in the world, 



SWORN FRIENDS 259 

held captive in the hands of those, who, instead of 
recognizing him for what he is in this kingdom, usurp 
violently what the law and nature rightly deny them, 
striving to triumph over him. There is nothing of 
which it is less hard or more utterly insupportable for 
me to think : and, without the grace which God gives 
me, representing before my eyes that such visitations 
come from His hand, and that they are the sign 
with which He marks His own, I do not know what 
I should do. 

- But, however much He may have wished by this 
means to prove it, even when in defence of His holy 
quarrel, yet He has not forbidden us to have some 
recourse to human methods, provided they are 
established on His grace. And for this cause, 
Madame, take pity on a Princess, who has wept so 
much for the grief which she properly and justly feels 
from the imprisonment of a prince her husband, 
whom it has pleased you to favour so much, judging 
him worthy of your gracious indulgence, as declared 
by the virtuous tokens you have so openly shown him 
in pursuance of this cause. May it please you to 
prove in this urgent necessity how no variety in the 
conditions of prosperity or adversity can change your 
sacred affections ; and promptly to aid him who, for 
the glory of our God, and in order faithfully to pre- 
serve the estate of his King is now the prisoner of 
those who, in order to succeed in their designs, would 
be well pleased to strike down such a rampart of this 
crown, so that they may afterwards, making more 
easily the breach, march into the fortress. I entreat 
you very humbly, Madame, to excuse me if I speak of 
it with such vehemence ; and that you will so oblige 
Monsieur my husband that he may be able some day 
to have the means of showing you by his services 
that ingratitude and unthankfulness have no place in 
his heart. And as for me, Madame, being unable at 
this moment to do anything else, I will pray to the 
Creator that he may preserve you in perfect health, 
and grant you a long and happy life, saluting 

s 2 



2 6o ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

your good grace with my very humble recommenda- 
tions. 

When Elizabeth wrote her reply she little dreamt how 
near the Princess was to realising her fondest hopes : 

QUEEN ELIZABETH TO THE PRINCESS OF CONDE\ 

[Forbes' " Full View of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth."] 

January 26, 1563. 
Madame, 

I have received your letters of the 5th of this 
month : and, while I can only condole very greatly 
with you on the misfortune which has befallen my 
cousin, the Prince of Conde, your husband, on the 
day of battle, I am yet very greatly pleased to hear 
that God, in His providence, has so moderated the 
event of the said day, that He has left to the enemy 
no just occasion for exulting in it ; although, by the 
course he takes, he tries to persuade the world that 
the victory was on his side. And inasmuch as he 
nevertheless shows himself so obstinate that he will 
not hear of any reasonable agreement, yet pursues 
his first designs with all his strength, I have no doubt 
that God, at the last, of His infinite goodness, will 
only bring about such end as you desire, it being 
truly His own cause : begging you, Madame, there- 
fore, to console yourself with every good hope ; 
assuring you also that this accident to the said Lord 
Prince has in nothing abated our favour to him. I 
hold myself still more steadfast and resolved to aid 
him and his associates by every good means in my 
power ; as I have very fully made known to Monsieur 
le Vidame de Chartres and the Sieurs de Briquemault 
and de la Haye lately here, and also by my letters 
now written to Monsieur the Admiral : praying God, 
Madame, my good Cousin, that He may have you 
in His holy keeping, and make you joyful with what 
you desire. 

On February 18 the Duke of Guise was shot by an assassin 
at Orleans and died six days later, whereupon the war 



SWORN FRIENDS 261 

came to an end, Conde and the Queen Mother, with the 
Constable and d'Andelot, temporarily settling their religious 
differences with the compromise published in the Edict of 
Amboise. While this was happening Elizabeth's second 
Parliament was meeting and vainly endeavouring to settle 
the vital problem of the Queen's marriage and the succession. 
In reply to the petition presented by the Speaker, Thomas 
Williams, drawn up by a committee of the House of Commons, 
and agreed to by the Lords, the Queen, as usual, deferred 
her decision. Her answer on this occasion is so characteristic 
that it is worth printing in full : 

THE QUEEN'S ANSWER TO THE SPEAKER. 

[Harington's " Nugce Antiques. ."] 
Williams, 

I have heard by you the common request of my 
Commons, which I may well term, as methinks, the 
whole realm ; because they give, as I have heard, in 
all these matters of Parliament, their common consent 
to such as be here assembled. The weight and 
greatness of this matter might cause in me, as I 
must confess, being a woman, wanting both wit and 
memory, some fear to speak, and bashfulness besides, 
a thing appropriate to my sex. But yet the princely 
state and kingly office (wherein God, though unworthy, 
hath constituted me) maketh these two causes to 
seem little in mine eyes, though grievous perhaps to 
your ears, and boldeneth me {that notwithstanding) 
to say somewhat in this matter, which I mean only 
to touch, but not presently to answer ; for this so 
great a demand needeth both great and grave advice. 
I read a philosopher, whose deeds upon this occasion 
I remember better than his name, who always, when 
he was required to give answer in any hard question 
of school points, would rehearse over his alphabet, 
before he would proceed to any further answer therein, 
not for that he could not presently have answered, 
but to have his wit the riper, and better sharpened 
to answer the matter withal. If he, a private man, 
but in matters of school, took such delay, the better 



262 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

to show his eloquence, great cause may justly move 
me, in this so great a matter touching the benefit of 
this realm, and the safety of you all, to defer my 
answer to some other time ; wherein, I assure you, 
the consideration of mine own safety, although I 
thank you for the great care that you seem to have 
thereof, shall be little in comparison of that great 
regard that I mean to have of the safety and surety 
of you all: and though God of late seemed to touch 
me rather like one that He chastised, than one that 
He punished ; and though death possessed almost 
every joint of me, so as I wished then that the 
feeble thread of life, which lasted methought all too 
long, might, by Clotho's 1 hand, have quickly been 
cut off; yet desired not I life then (as I have some 
witness here) so much for mine own safety as for 
yours ; for I knew that, in exchange of this reign, 
I should have enjoyed a better reign, where residence 
is perpetual. There needs no boding of my bane. 
I know as well now as I did before that I am mortal ; 
I know, also, that I must seek to discharge myself 
of that great burden that God hath here laid upon 
me : for of them to whom much is committed, much is 
required. 

Think not that I, that in other matters have had 
convenient care of you all, will in this matter, 
touching the safety of myself and you all be careless. 
For know, that this matter toucheth me much nearer 
than it doth you all, who, if the worst happen, can 
lose but your bodies : but I, if I take not that con- 
venient care that it behoveth me to have therein, 
I hazard to lose both body and soul ; and though 
I am determined, in this so great and weighty a 
matter, to defer my answer till some other time, 
because I will not, in so deep a matter, wade with 
so shallow a wit : yet have I thought good to use 
these few words, as well to show you that I am 
neither careless nor unmindful of your safeties in 

1 Clotho : though Atropos seems to have been the destiny whom 
her Majesty meant to employ. — Thomas Park, " Nugce Antiquce.'" 



SWORN FRIENDS 263 

this case ; as I trust you likewise do not forget, that 
by me you were delivered while you were yet hanging 
on the bough, ready to fall into the mud, yea, to be 
drowned in the doing ; neither yet the promises 
which you have now made me concerning your 
duties and due obedience, wherewith I may and 
mean to charge you, as further to let you understand 
that I neither mislike of your request herein, nor of 
that great care that you seem to have of your own 
safety in this matter. 

Lastly, because I will discharge some restless 
heads, in whose brains the needless hammers beat 
with vain judgment that I should mislike this their 
petition ; I say that, of the matter, some thereof I 
like and allow very well ; as to the circumstances, if 
any be, I mean, upon further advice, further to 
answer. And so I assure you all, that though, after 
my death, you may have many stepdames, yet shall 
you never have any a more natural mother than I 
mean to be unto you all. 

It was impossible to bind her to anything more definite, 
though repeated attempts were made. There was no 
desperate hurry, she would reply ; she was still young. 
Cecil had his hands full with this and other parliamentary 
business, besides the anxious affairs of Scotland and France. 
He could not forbear a groan when writing to Sir Thomas 
Smith of affairs in general at this anxious time : 

SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO SIR THOMAS SMITH. 

[Wright's "Elizabeth and her Times."] 

February 27, 1563. 
Sir, 

Mr. Somers returned hither on Thursday at 
night, who, beside the letters which he brought, was 
able to report of certainty that which we here were 
very glad to hear, I mean of the hurt of the Duke of 
Guise, whose soul I could wish in heaven, and 
mine also. 



264 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

Since Sir Nicholas Throckmorton went to New- 
haven, 1 I have heard nothing certain of the Admiral 
but that he should have put two thousand men into 
Caen ; but the castle was held by the Marquis 
d'Elbceuf. His reiters shall receive their pay, of 
the which Mr. Throckmorton carrieth with him 
twenty thousand pounds, and yesterday, I think, 
passed ten thousand pounds more from Portsmouth. 
This day commission passeth from hence to the 
Count of Oldenburg, to levy eight thousand footmen, 
and four thousand horse, who will I trust pass into 
France with speed and courage. He is a notable, 
grave, and puissant Captain, and fully bent to hazard 
his life in the cause of religion. 

The bearer of these letters cometh from the Lord 
of Lethington, who is here to motion to the Duke of 
Guise, and consequently to that King, that the 
Queen of Scots, his mistress, might be a means of 
peace, but how unmeet a means some will think her, 
I doubt. Nevertheless the office is meet for a 
Christian Prince, and God send success ! "... I am 
so fully occupied to expedite matters in this Parlia- 
ment that I have no leisure almost to attend any 
other things. A subsidy and two fifteenths are 
granted as big as ever any was. A like is granted 
by the clergy. A law is passed for sharpening laws 
against Papists, wherein some difficulty hath been, 
because they be made very penal ; but such be the 
humours of the Commons House, that they think 
nothing sharp enough against Papists. 2 

Very good laws are in hand for increase of fisher- 
men, and consequently the mariners and navy. Fish 

1 Sir Nicholas Throckmorton arrived at Newhaven (Havre) on 
February 14, 1563. 

2 At the Pope's council at Rome, this year (says Wright, in 
printing this letter), "among other infamous resolutions, was the 
following: 'A pardon to be granted to any that would assault the 
Queen, or to any cook, brewer, baker, vinter, physician, grocer, 
chirurgeon, or of any other calling whatsoever that would make her 
away. And an absolute remission of sins to the heirs of that party's 
family, and a perpetual annuity to them for ever, and to be of the 
privy council to whomsoever afterwards should reign.' " 



SWORN FRIENDS 265 

is much favoured, and Wednesday meant to be 
observed like Saturday, and sundry other things 
therein provided. 1 I have been author of a short 
law, not exceeding twelve lines, whereby is ordered 
that if any man will sell any foreign commodity to 
any person, for apparel, and without ready money, 
or without payment within twenty-eight days, the 
seller shall be without his remedy. 

There is also a very good law agreed upon 
for indifferent allowances for servants' wages in 
husbandry. Many other good laws are passed the 
nether House, as for toleration of usury under ten 
per cent, (which notwithstanding I durst not allow) ; 
another against Egyptians, 2 another to remedy the 
defrauding of statutes for tillage. 

Yesterday were condemned two Poles, Fortescue, 
one Spencer, and Bingham, servants to the Lord 
Hastings of Loughborough, 3 and one Berwick. 
Fortescue confessed all, and so was attainted, and 
is thereby never to take hold of mercy. The 
treasons were intents to come with a power into 
Wales, and to proclaim the Scottish Queen. The 
traitors seek their defence by saying that they meant 
it not before the Queen our Sovereign should die, 
which, as they were persuaded by one Prestall, 
should be about this March. But I trust God 
hath more store of His mercies for us, than so to 
cast us over to devouring lions. . . . 

Yours assured, 

W. Cecil. 

It may here be added that in addition to Elizabeth's 
second Parliament there was held at the same time a 
Convocation of the Province of Canterbury. This was 

1 The Papists laughed at these fast days for the encouragement 
of fishing. The Wednesday they called Cecil's Fast (Jejuneum 
Cecilianum). — Wright. 

2 Gipsies. 

8 Sir Edward Hastings, first Baron Hastings, of Loughborough, 
a powerful Catholic under Mary. He had been imprisoned in 1561 
for hearing Mass, but was released on taking the oath of supremacy. 



266 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

made memorable by the publication of the famous " Thirty- 
Nine Articles," which were, practically speaking, Cranmer's 
forty-two, revised and reduced by Parker in the successful 
spirit of compromise which played so large a part in the 
Elizabethan Settlement. 



CHAPTER VII 

LOVE AND WAR 

The Chastelard Affair— Lethington's Mission to London — Discusses 
the Prospects of Mary Stuart's Marriage with Don Carlos — 
Elizabeth Offers the Hand of Lord Robert Dudley — Philip II. 
Spoils Another Opportunity — Catholic Support for Mary Stuart 
in England — Why Elizabeth Refused to Nominate Mary as her 
Successor — Huntingdon's Letter of Loyalty — End of the First 
Religious War in France— Elizabeth Refuses to Evacuate Havre 
— Warwick's Fight Against Hopeless Odds — Don Carlos and 
Mary Stuart — Elizabeth's Warning on the Subject — Death of 
Bishop Quadra — Closing Scenes at Havre — The Plague Spreads 
to England — Lady Catherine Grey and Lord Hertford Removed 
for Safety — Lady Catherine's Disillusioned Hopes — Elizabeth's 
Love of Hunting and Archbishop Parker's Love of Venison. 

Enter Chastelard, hapless victim of one of the tragic love 
romances of history, according to Swinburne and Froude ; 
villain of the most despicable type, according to his critics. 
Froude pictures Chastelard as a lovelorn young poet and 
musician sighing at Mary's feet both during her voyage to 
Scotland, and afterwards for some months at Holyrood. 
" He went back to France, but could not remain there. 
The moth was recalled to the flame whose warmth was life 
and death to it." Lethington, on the other hand, as will be 
seen on p. 280, depicted him as a reckless conspirator, sent 
specially to compromise Mary by her enemies in France. 
He was undoubtedly welcomed and made one of her favourite 
attendants by Mary, who shocked both Knox and Randolph 
by her indiscreet familiarities with him. According to Knox 
she would " sometimes privily steal a kiss from his neck ; " 
but she ordered him away when he went the length of hiding 
in her bedroom. Nothing daunted, he made another and 
more desperate attempt ; and lost his head for his pains : 

THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 

[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.] 

St. Andrews, February 28, 1863. 
I promised in my last I would write more amply of 
Chastelard's bold attempt ; but there were so many 
divers reports ; and contrary judgments as to what 



268 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

should become of him, that for long time I could 
come by no certainty. I also absented myself from 
the Court, lest I had been required to be suitor for 
him, whom I judged even more worthy of 500 deaths 
than of one jot of the favour I saw was borne to him. 
I arrived here on Ash Wednesday, and heard by the 
way that on Monday before he was beheaded. After 
conferring with some friends I understood for certain 
that this was proved — that the night before the Queen 
departed out of Edinburgh towards this town, he was 
found lying under the Queen's bed with his sword 
beside him and his dagger about him, the Queen being 
ready to go into her bed ; whereof the Queen was 
not made privy until the morrow, for disquieting of 
her that night, and in the morning, being advertised, 
she commanded him out of her presence. He not- 
withstanding followed her to Dunfermlin, and either by 
some word or token finding (as he thought) her wrath 
appeased, took new courage upon him, and at her 
coming unto Burnt Island (the third day after her 
departure from Edinburgh) the Queen being in her 
chamber, no man in her company, only certain of 
her gentlewomen about her, he cometh in alone, and 
desireth that he might purge himself of that crime 
that he was charged with, denying that he was found 
under her Grace's bed, but said that being in her 
Grace's chamber late, and finding himself for want 
of sleep, got him unto the next place that was at 
hand, which was unto the most secret place of 
the whole house, where her Grace did resort unto 
about her most private affairs. . . . Though this was 
evil enough, and greater boldness in him than any 
man of a far greater calling ought to have done — yet 
he was convicted by sufficient witnesses that he was 
not found there, but under the bed. He was then 
committed to ward, the next day sent to St. Andrews, 
and five or six days after, his head cut off in the open 
market place on market day. He died repentant, 
confessing privately more than he spoke openly. 1 
1 Knox, who declared that Chastelard lost his head "that his 



LOVE AND WAR 269 

His purpose the night he was found under the bed 
was to have tried her constancy, and by force to have 
attempted that which by no persuasions he could 
attain unto, whereby ensued the reward of so rash an 
enterprise of such an unworthy creature ever to think 
to come by that which she herself (I believe) judgeth 
very few in the world worthy of. Thus your Honour 
understands the matter as truly as any man can 
report it. She has taken some grief of mind, but 
begins to be merry again. Hereof she never had 
purpose with me herself, but divers of her gentle- 
woman and others have no small regret that such a 
thing should have chanced. Their sorrow will pass 
and the wonder blown over in nine days. The man 
that takes most sorrow is the Earl of Murray, lest 
worse be judged of it, and of the familiar usage of 
such a varlet than was meant by her. 

Much is hoped of Lethington's travail. The godly 
trust her Majesty will never desert the poor Protest- 
ants for any persuasion made — though it is long since 
we heard from your Honour how things prosper among 
them. Since Raulet's arrival here, never came letter 
from France to this Queen, for all the fair promises 
and offer of service to her Grace by the venerable 
Cardinal of A., I mean the Bishop of Arras, who in 
his last letters hither wrote very despitefully of our 
sovereign's doings in France. There lacks no good 
will in him to work mischief. 

It is vehemently suspected there is some practice of 
marriage — your Honour knows which way, if so be. 
Others fear, if the Duke have his way, there will be 
another alliance with France. We can only con- 
jecture, for in this realm no man knows her mind. 
Our preachers pray daily that God will keep us from 
the bondage of strangers, and for herself in effect that 

tongue should not utter the secrets of our Queen, concluded a godly- 
confession on the scaffold by looking unto the heavens and uttering 
these words, O cruelle darner' Bran tome, who was not present, 
declares that he consoled himself on the scaffold only with 
Ronsard's "Hymn to Death," after reading which he cried aloud, 
" Adieu, most beautiful and cruel princess ! " 



270 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

God will either turn her heart, or send her short life ! 
Of what charity or spirit this proceedeth, I leave 
to be discussed unto the great divines. . . . 

By this time Lethington, as stated by Cecil in his last 
letter, had arrived in London not only to offer Mary as a 
mediator between Elizabeth and the Guises, but also to con- 
tinue the negotiations for the acknowledgment of Mary's 
right to the succession. The difference between the Reforma- 
tion in England and in Scotland is illustrated by Cecil's 
application for a restricted Lent licence for the Scottish 
ambassador : 

SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO ARCHBISHOP PARKER. 

[Parker Correspondence.] 

February 27, 1563. 

My very good lord. The lord of Lethington, lately 
sent to the Queen's Majesty from the Queen of Scots, 
desireth to have the use of flesh this Lent. And 
because he is a stranger come in this charge, I 
heartily pray your Grace to consider of it, for his 
satisfaction therein. Marry I trust you will order it 
with as much restraint and limitation of days, with 
the manner thereof for himself and his only, as is 
meet for the example's sake. And so I bid your 
Grace heartily farewell. 

Your Grace's at command, 

W. Cecil. 

I beseech your Grace be not too light-handed in 
licences to every person. 

When the death of Guise, Mary's kinsman and most 
powerful friend, upset Lethington's plans he turned to 
Quadra to discuss the pros and cons of a marriage between 
his mistress and Don Carlos, Spain being now her chief hope 
of a Catholic backing in case it became necessary to assert 
her rights to the English throne : 

BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II. 
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. L] 

London, March 18, 1563. 
On the 27th ultimo I wrote to your Majesty that 
Lethington, the Secretary of the Queen of Scotland, 



LOVE AND WAR 271 

had arrived here, and the cause of his coming so far 
as I could then ascertain. Since then I have seen 
him several times, and as it seemed to me that he was 
desirous of talking with me about his affairs, and was 
dissatisfied with this Queen, I invited him to dinner. 
When we were alone, on my simply asking him how 
he was getting on with his business in London, he 
launched out into a long account of the whole 
negotiation, which mainly consisted of two points, 
namely, the succession of his mistress the Queen to 
this crown, and the question of her marriage. . . . 
When he arrived here and told this Queen that he 
came on behalf of his mistress to offer her interven- 
tion between her and the King of France, in 
accordance with the desires which had been signified 
here, she told him he was very welcome, and thanked 
her cousin the Queen warmly for her good intentions, 
and said that he could go to France, and she would 
instruct her ambassador, Smith, to negotiate. 
Lethington was not desirous of leaving here so 
quickly, before learning what was going on in Parlia- 
ment about his Queen's affairs, and what action the 
Queen of England intended taking in them, and he 
therefore answered that he would gladly do as she 
commanded, but that for his own dignity and the 
success of the negotiation, it was necessary first that 
the wishes of Her Christian Majesty and her son 
should be ascertained. Notwithstanding all their 
argument against this he stood firm, and this Queen 
was at last obliged to consent to his sending a 
servant to ask leave in France for his going. When 
this servant had departed, there came among other 
troubles the news of the wounding and subsequently 
the death of the Duke of Guise, which rendered the 
negotiations of the Scottish Queen ridiculous and 
contemptible. Lethington was so indignant at this 
that he came to discuss his affairs with me, and finding 
me disposed to lean to the interests of his Queen, he 
had thus opened his mind as I have stated. When 
we had arrived at the point where he was telling me 



272 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

how perplexed and desperate he was I said that in 
my opinion, there was no other remedy for the Queen 
of Scotland but for her to marry a husband from this 
Queen's hand, in which case she would be declared 
her successor. He said there were two difficulties 
in this course, namely, that the Queen his mistress 
would never marry a Protestant, even if he were lord 
of half the world, as he knew well, for he had 
resorted even to the use of (threats ?) to get her to 
change her resolve in this respect, but without success. 
The second difficulty is that his mistress says she 
will not take a husband, Catholic or Protestant, from 
the hands of the Queen of England, even if by this 
act alone she could be declared her successor, because 
she knows that in the first place any husband she 
would give her would be one of her subjects, whom 
she would rather die than accept ; and in the second, 
that after she had married beneath her, she would 
have exactly the same trouble as now to press her 
claims to the succession, as, without forces of her 
own, she never could do it, whatever declarations 
might be made, and whereas she now has the 
adhesion of all the Catholics of the realm, and 
of many who are not Catholics, perhaps she would 
lose it all after she had made a sorry marriage. 
He said therefore, that there was no hope of agree- 
ment based on the submission to the Queen of Scot- 
land to this Queen, and her acceptance of a husband 
to her (Elizabeth's) liking, and this was the reason 
why his mistress had decided, that in the event ol 
no satisfactory arrangement being made here, he 
should go to France and propose through her uncles 
the marriage of the Christian King, although she 
knew that in consequence of their near relationship 
and disparity of age, it was an unsuitable match. 
She was driven to this course, however, by necessity, 
since not only English, but also even Frenchmen for 
their own ends thwarted her by proposing, now the 
Duke of Ferrara, now the Earl of Arran, and now 
other things totally shameful and infamous. Treating 



LOVE AND WAR 273 

of this matter, he told me that the Duke had already 
been firmly refused, and as for the Earl of Arran, the 
Queen hated him so, that having heard that the 
Queen of France, through this Ambassador Foix, had 
given him some hope of the match, she wrote a letter 
to the French Queen complaining bitterly that Foix 
should have dealings in Scotland with any of her 
subjects, or secret understandings with them here. 
She says they have not yet dared to suggest to her a 
husband less great and powerful than the one she has 
lost. 

I asked him what about the marriage with the 
Archduke Charles. He said he had heard more 
about it here than in Scotland, and so far as he 
understood the thoughts and intentions of his mistress 
such a match would not satisfy her, since the Arch- 
duke has nothing in his favour but his relationship 
with your Majesty, and this alone is not sufficient for 
the aims the Queen and the Scots have in view. The 
relationship of princes is of small importance in the 
affairs of their dominions, and if your Majesty did not 
promise great support and effectual aid to the Arch- 
duke, he thought there was no chance of such a 
match being acceptable. Talking over all these 
matters, and especially of the suspicion with which 
he repeated several times this Queen regards the 
marriage of the Queen of Scotland, we came to speak 
of our lord the Prince, of whom he told me these 
people here are so mortally afraid that they have no 
rest, and feel sure your Majesty will play them a fine 
trick some day when they least expect it. I told him 
that I had an idea also that this Queen was somewhat 
frightened of such a marriage since the Queen of 
Scots had become a widow, and to keep us in hand 
they had offered great things respecting the reforma- 
tion of religion, but that since the commencement of 
the war in France, it appeared as if this Queen, forti- 
fied as she was by the faction of the Prince of Conde 
and the Chatillons, was not so alarmed, and I thought 
also she might feel the more secure as the Scots were 
e.m.s. T 



274 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

of the same religion. He replied that I was mis- 
taken, as they were more afraid now than ever before, 
and that as for religion, this Queen cared as little for 
one as for the other. He said their religion in Scot- 
land was very different from the English, as here they 
had removed the sacrament and names from the 
Anglican Church without reforming the abuses and 
irregularities, and that it was simply nonsense to 
think that questions of religion were really at the 
bottom of the present state of affairs. Returning to 
the question of our lord the Prince, he said that this 
Queen was in great fear of his marriage, and the 
Queen of France the same, with very good reason, 
as, if your Majesty listened to it, not only would you 
give your son a wife of such excellent qualities as 
those possessed by his Queen, who was in pru- 
dence, chastity and beauty, equalled by few in the 
world, but you also gave him a power which 
approached very nearly to monarchy, adding to the 
dominions already possessed by your Majesty two 
entire islands, this and Ireland, the possession of 
which by your Majesty would give no trouble what- 
ever, having regard to the great attachment the 
Catholics bear to this marriage, and to the union of 
these crowns, which he well knew, and that his 
mistress had no enemies here but the Protestants. . . . 
What passed between us is, in substance, what I 
have set forth, but much less diffusely, as we spoke 
about nothing else for the whole four or five hours 
we were together. As he slowly entered into the 
matter I carefully kept him to it without showing any 
certainty or eagerness, and praised the Archduke 
every now and then, so as to display as much inclina- 
tion and hope of one match as of the other without 
preference for either. With regard to affairs here I 
can only say that on all hands I am receiving con- 
firmation of the correctness of what I wrote respecting 
the attachment of the people of this country to the 
idea of the marriage in question, and there are 
persons who offer to serve your Majesty with 1,000 



LOVE AND WAR 275 

(men) for this ; and others promise other things no 
less important. It is easily seen by the state of the 
country that if God in His mercy deigns to relieve 
them from these wars the remedy will be by means 
of a union of the countries under a powerful Christian 
prince, and there appears to be no other course open. 
I say this in the name of all these good Christians 
and servitors of your Majesty here, who speak of the 
matter with such sorrow and vehemence that it seems 
as if no obstacle could withstand so much earnestness 
and determination. It is true that Cecil is playing 
his game to give the crown to the Earl of Hertford, 
as Lethington understands, but the adherents to such 
a course will be weak in comparison to the Catholic 
party who favour the Queen of Scotland, as some of 
the heretics side with Huntingdon, and some have 
no fixed plan, but will follow the strongest. The 
Catholics, however, are all of one will, and really, 
if your Majesty wishes, there appears to be no 
impediment to prevent your Majesty from entertaining 
what all here are talking of, and I approve. 

Respecting the marriage of the King of France, I 
wish to observe that I had early news of the design, 
and as soon as Lethington arrived here I introduced 
the subject, as if casually, to the (French) Ambassador, 
who appeared not to attach much importance to it, 
and thought that the Queen- Mother would not be 
favourable to it, because they knew your Majesty 
would never allow the French to obtain the succes- 
sion to this throne, which was the only good thing 
they could hope to get from the match. Lethington 
gave me to understand the very reverse of this, and 
said that Foix was very well disposed and that the 
French had some design prejudicial to your Majesty's 
interests. However that may be, and I believe one 
just as much as the other, my own opinion is that 
the French might try to insure themselves against 
our lord the Prince by arranging a marriage with the 
Queen of Scotland, which would last only until his 
Highness were married elsewhere. There would be 

t 2 



276 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

plenty of ways to get out of it if they wished, or it 
might be carried into effect if occasion served. 

Ten days later Quadra sent his master word of Elizabeth's 
offer to Mary of Lord Robert's hand in marriage, when she 
added to what Lethington regarded as an insult by 
suggesting his brother Warwick as a possible alternative. 
She was probably no more sincere in this than was 
Lethington — if we are to believe Kirkcaldy of Grange — in 
his proposal for Mary's marriage to Don Carlos. In the 
midst of a world of duplicity, indeed, it is impossible to say 
who was really honest and straightforward. Apparently no 
one. But the correspondence, if it proves nothing else, 
shows the difficulty of knowing how far anyone's word 
could be trusted in those days, as well as the danger of 
dogmatizing on the subject at the present time. Quadra 
would fain believe in Lethington's sincerity. He saw the 
possibilities of such an alliance. Had Philip and Don Carlos 
been other than they were, it is possible that Elizabeth 
might have found herself deposed, and another Mary and 
Spanish Consort firmly established on her throne. But 
though Philip approved of the scheme, as will be found in 
his letter of June 15, he spoiled whatever chance it may have 
had by not striking while the iron was hot : 

BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, March 28, 1563. 

By letter of 18th instant and previous dates I have 
advised the arrival here of Lethington, Secretary to 
the Queen of Scotland, and his interview with me. 
He has subsequently visited me, as I was unwell, 
and he assures me, since the day he spoke with me, 
six or seven of the peers have spoken to him 
separately, and have declared to him their desire to 
receive and serve the Queen of Scotland, and to 
see her married to our lord the Prince. He says the 
latter condition was urged by all with so much 
persistence and earnestness that he is quite convinced 
of the strong inclination towards the marriage held 



LOVE AND WAR 277 

by the people here. The French ambassador here 
recently declared that the marriage of the said Queen 
with the Archduke Charles was already a settled 
thing, but I do not know what his object is in saying 
so, whether it is true or (which is much more likely) 
because he thinks it will benefit his negotiations for 
peace. Lethington says that all the gentlemen that 
have spoken to him have expressed very little 
satisfaction at the talk of marriage with the Arch- 
duke, and he thinks in Scotland it will be no better 
received if it takes place. He has again repeated the 
arguments which I set forth in my letter of the 
1 8th instant aforementioned, with other fresh ones 
which I need not here repeat. It occurs to me that 
having seen so great a leaning to this marriage on 
the part of the people here, his own desire for it has 
increased, and this has led him to assure me very 
emphatically of the small wish they have to join 
hands with the French and their great eagerness to 
establish their right to this country. He related to 
me also the grievances they have against both 
countries. He said that four or five days ago, when 
he was discussing with this Queen the question of 
peace with France, the conversation turned to the 
Queen of Scotland and her marriage. The Queen 
said that if his mistress would take her advice, and 
wished to marry safely and happily, she would give 
her a husband who would ensure both, and this was 
Lord Robert, in whom nature has implanted so 
many graces that if she wished to marry she would 
prefer him to all the princes in the world, and many 
more things of the same sort. Lethington says he 
replied that this was a great proof of the love she 
bore to his Queen, as she was willing to give her a thing 
so dearly prized by herself, and he thought the 
Queen, his mistress, even if she loved Lord Robert 
as dearly as she (Elizabeth) did, would not marry 
him, and so deprive her of all the joy and solace she 
received from his companionship. After spending a 
long time over these compliments he says the Queen 



278 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

said to him she wished to God the Earl of Warwick 
his brother had the grace and good looks of Lord 
Robert, in which case each could have one. Lething- 
ton says he could not reply for confusion, but she 
nevertheless went on with the conversation, saying 
that the Earl of Warwick was not ugly either, and 
was not ungraceful, but his manner was rather 
rough, and he was not so gentle as Lord Robert. 
For the rest, however, he was so brave, so liberal 
and magnanimous, that truly he was worthy of being 
the husband of any great princess. Lethington was 
anxious to escape from this colloquy by bringing on 
the subject of the succession, which he knew would 
shut her mouth directly, and therefore told her that 
the Queen his mistress was very young yet, and 
what this Queen might do for her was to marry 
Lord Robert herself first and have children by him, 
which was so important for the welfare of the 
country, and then when it should please God to call 
her to himself she could leave the Queen of Scots 
heiress both to her kingdom and her husband. In 
this way it would be impossible for Lord Robert to 
fail to have children by one or other of them, who 
would in time become Kings of these two countries, 
and so turning it to a joke he put an end to the 
conversation. Lethington was so upset by the talk 
of the Earl of Warwick, whom I certainly thought 
she would never dare to mention, that he would fain 
have posted off that very hour, as he assures me he 
would do now if he had not been charged with these 
peace negotiations, for which he will probably have to 
go to France. I think he is dealing straightforwardly, 
with me, as he gives me many pledges and reveals 
things very prejudicial to himself, although he gets 
from me in return nothing but the usual uncertainty 
and indecision. 

The fact is doubtless that seeing so great a desire 
in England for this marriage with the Prince and so 
marked a repugnance to any other, even to that with 
the Archduke, or other as nearly allied to your 



LOVE AND WAR 279 

Majesty, they are ready to do anything to obtain it. 
Although their position with regard to religion is the 
same as usual I still think they would do even more 
in this respect than up to the present they have said. 
I gather from his words that the Queen of Scotland 
must be treated by the Queen-Mother with great 
disregard, and he said clearly that a much closer 
friendship than anybody thought existed between the 
Queen-Mother and the Prince of Conde and the 
Chatillons. He showed me the statement of a circum- 
stance that had happened to his Queen, the most 
extraordinary and unpleasant thing ever heard of. 
It happened on the night that Lethington took leave of 
her to come hither. He, Lord James, and two other 
members of her Council were with her for several hours 
in her private cabinet until after midnight. During 
this time a little Frenchman called Chastelard, who 
arrived some months ago from France, and who was 
always joking among the ladies, took the oppor- 
tunity of some of the attendants in the Queen's 
chamber having gone to sleep to slip underneath the 
bed. When Lethington and the others had gone, 
two grooms of the chamber entered, and when the 
chamber was cleared looked as usual behind the 
tapestry and the bed, and came across the hidden 
Frenchman. Seeing himself discovered, he tried 
hard to pass it all off as a joke, and said he had 
fallen asleep there, because they would not let him 
sleep anywhere else. He wanted them to let him go 
with this, but the grooms called the mistress of the 
robes and told her, and she ordered the captain of the 
guard to be summoned, and charged him to keep the 
man in safe custody, saying however nothing to the 
Queen, so as not to spoil her night's rest. She was 
informed the next morning and the man was brought 
before the Council and examined. He wished still to 
turn the thing into a joke, but the Queen ordered that 
he should be punished in any case, if not for his 
villainy then for his carelessness, and that the truth 
of the matter should be discovered, as it could not 



280 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

have been negligence. Finding himself in a fix the 
man said that he had been sent from France by 
persons of distinguished position, with sufficient 
means and apparel in order that he should get a 
footing in the Court and household of the Queen ot 
Scotland, and try to make himself so familiar with 
ner and her ladies that he could seize an opportunity 
of obtaining some appearance of proof sufficient to 
sully the honour of the Queen. He was instructed 
after attempting so great a crime as this to escape at 
once, and he should be greatly esteemed and largely 
rewarded, and he therefore intended to remain that 
night underneath the bed, and go out in the morning, 
so that he could escape after being seen, which was 
what he desired. After this confession had been 
made and confirmed before all the people they cut off 
the man's head. 

The persons who sent him on this treacherous 
errand were, according to Lethington, several, but she 
who gave the principal instructions was Madame de 
Curosot. 1 The Queen writes to Lethington that the 
other names are such that they cannot be entrusted 
to letters, but I do not know who it is that he sus- 
pects, as he keeps it very close from me. This male- 
factor came here last November with a German 
captain nominally as his servant, and both were 
followers of Monsieur Damville. When he passed 
through here he told a friend of his, by means of 
whom I will try to find out something, that he was 
going to Scotland to see his lady love. This Queen 
had received news of the affair before Lethington's 
arrival here by means of a special messenger, who 
travelled with great speed, and Lethington found it 
was very much talked about, which greatly grieved 
him until he received advice of what was being done. 
He seems now somewhat tranquillised about the 
affair itself, but complains bitterly of the people 

1 Curosot, writes Andrew Lang, is the Spanish cipher name for 
Chatillon, and the wife of the Admiral Coligny is intended, or the 
real name is de Cursol or Crusolles, later Duchesse d'Uzes. 



LOVE AND WAR 281 

who sent the man on his errand. He says that all 
Scotland is offended at it, and that it has originated 
in some of the most powerful people in France. 

I hear that it has been proposed to the Lords in 
Parliament to reduce the succession to the crown to 
four lines or families in the kingdom, leaving to the 
Queen the nomination of the one that has to succeed 
her out of these four. It is a trick of Cecil's so that 
it shall fall where he wishes, and the naming of four 
houses will close the mouths of many who will con- 
tent themselves with that honour, although they know 
they will be excluded from the succession itself. The 
Queen will obtain what she has been contemplating for 
some time, namely the reduction of the succession to her 
testamentary disposition. I expect they will exclude 
women born and to be born in order to make sure of 
the Queen of Scotland, whose chance in the matter has 
been quite spoilt by the death of the Duke of Guise. 

Lethington leaves for France in three days quite 
undeceived about affairs here, although he will con- 
tinue the peace negotiations. He says he is osten- 
sibly going to look after the Queen's property in 
France, but I am not without suspicion that he will 
treat of the marriage with his Queen with the King 
of France, not getting any satisfactory answer here 
about our lord the Prince. 

Lethington, as Quadra told his master, was not alone in 
weighing the advantages of the Spanish match for Mary. 
"A well-known Catholic M. P." assured him that some of the 
English nobles would willingly set aside all the other 
claimants to the throne " and give the kingdom to the 
person to whom it rightly belongs, namely the Queen of 
Scotland, if your Majesty would consent to her marriage 
with our lord the Prince, in which they say all would gladly 
concur, and receive him with open arms as King, and so 
unite these two crowns, and become subjects of a great 
sovereign under whom they could live in peace, and do away 
with these religious questions. He has named up to the 
present five persons of position who he says have sent to 



282 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

him, and very shortly this opinion will be held by many 
more. He says if I like he will go himself to Scotland on a 
favourable opportunity to treat with that Queen for the con- 
clusion of this business, which he looks upon as done so far 
as regards the people here." x 

_ Possibly the M.P. was merely one of Cecil's agents, but 
Quadra was the more convinced of his sincerity because he 
could not see any other remedy for the kingdom than the one 
proposed. " There is not a single one of these pretenders 
who is strong enough to withstand the others and master 
the whole of them, and consequently they cannot fail to 
come to blows over it, and run the risk of falling a prey to 
the King of Sweden or anybody else who invades the country 
with some force and money." Elizabeth herself was in an 
extremely difficult position. She could not name the Queen 
of Scots as her successor, fearing that to do so would merely 
be to sign her own death-warrant. Her grim metaphor to 
Lethington on the subject was that to agree to his proposal 
would be " simply to prepare her own winding sheet and 
make her grave ready." She probably realised as well as 
did the Spanish Ambassador, that to choose anyone else 
would be to sow the seed of civil war. So she found her only 
safety in procrastination. When the Lords went to her after 
the Commons' failure, and begged her to settle the question, 
she did not disguise her annoyance. " She told them," wrote 
Quadra to Philip, " that the marks they saw on her face were 
not wrinkles, but pits of small-pox, and that although she 
might be old God could send her children as He did to 
Saint Elizabeth, and they (the Lords) had better consider 
well what they were asking, as, if she declared a successor, it 
would cost much blood to England." 2 

The minds of everyone were disturbed by all this un- 
certainty. " How wretched are we," wrote Dr. Jewel to 
Peter Martyr, "who cannot tell under what sovereign we 
are to live ! God will, I trust, long preserve Elizabeth to 
us in life and safety, and that will satisfy us." 3 To be born 
with a strain of royal blood, however remote, where the 

1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 297. 

2 Ibid., p. 296. 

8 " Zi»ich Letters." First Series. 



LOVE AND WAR 283 

reigning Queen was the last of her race in the direct line, 
and unwilling to ensure the succession by the usual means 
of matrimony, was a privilege which more than one possible 
claimant to the crown would willingly have forfeited. 
Henry Hastings, third Earl of Huntingdon, who, as stated 
on p. 142, had distant claims to the throne as a descendant 
of the Dukes of Buckingham and York, was fearful at this 
time of suffering for the zeal of those who would have 
appointed him Elizabeth's successor : 

THE EARL OF HUNTINGDON TO THE EARL OF 
LEICESTER. 

[" Hardwicke State Papers."} 

April, 1563. 
My honourable good Lord, 

I am sorry that my present disease is such as there 
are left me but these two remedies, either to swallow 
up those bitter pills lately received, or to make you 
a partner of my griefs, thereby something to ease a 
wounded heart. At my wife's last being at Court, 
to do her duty as became her, it pleased her Majesty 
to give her a privy nip, especially concerning myself, 
whereby I perceive she hath some jealous conceit of 
me, and, as I can imagine, of late digested. How 
far I have been always from conceiting any greatness 
of myself, nay how ready I have been always to shun 
applause, both by my continual low sail, and my 
carriage, I do assure myself, is best known to your 
Lordship, and the rest of my nearest friends ; if not, 
mine own conscience shall best clear me from any such 
folly. Alas, what could I hope to effect, in the greatest 
hopes I might imagine to have in the obtaining the 
least likelihood of that height ? Will a whole 
commonwealth deprive themselves of so many 
blessings presently enjoyed, for a future hope un- 
certain, in favour of one inferior to many others, 
both in degree, and any princely quality ? Will 
they forsake a Prince, both for excellent qualities, 
and rare virtues of nature, and of great hopes of an 



284 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

inestimable blessing by her princely issue, in reason 
of her youth, for a poor subject in years, and without 
any great hope of issue ? No, no, I cannot be per- 
suaded they would, if I should be so foolishly wicked 
to desire it, or that my mind were so ambitiously 
inclined. I hope her Majesty will be persuaded ol 
better things in me, and cast this conceit behind her; 
and that a foolish book, foolishly written, shall not 
be able to possess her princely inclination with so 
bad a conceit of her faithful servant, who desires not 
to live but to see her happy. What grief it hath 
congealed within my poor heart (but ever true) let 
your Lordship judge, whose Prince's favour was 
always more dear unto me than all other worldly 
facilities whatsoever. This I am bold to make known 
to your Lordship, humbly desiring the same when 
you see your opportunity to frame a new heart in 
her Majesty's princely breast, whose power I know 
is not little in effecting of far greater matters than 
this, for never shall there be a truer heart in any 
subject than I will carry to her Majesty so long as 
I breathe. And so I rest 

Your poor Servant and Brother, 

H. Huntingdon. 

The situation was not improved for Elizabeth by the 
dramatic conclusion of the first war between the Catholics 
and the Huguenots in France. Peace having been signed, 
Warwick was requested by both sides to restore Havre 
to France, and to return with his unappreciated army 
to England. The Prince of Cond6 himself in his own 
name and that of the Queen-Mother offered to renew the 
clause in the Treaty of Cateau Cambresis for the restora- 
tion of Calais to England in 1567, and to repay Elizabeth 
the money which she had lent him for the recent campaign. 
Elizabeth, however, was furious with the " false Prince of 
Conde," as she called him, and declined to withdraw from 
Havre without the immediate restoration of Calais, remind- 
ing him of the terms of the agreement upon which she had 
sent to his assistance : 



LOVE AND WAR 285 

BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, May 9, 1563. 

Briquemault, the Prince of Conde's envoy, came 
here for the purpose I have mentioned, which was 
really only compliment to the Queen in recognition 
of the aid she had given, and a desire to make peace 
between her and the King of France, but without the 
surrender of Calais. She answered him with great 
bitterness, as I have said, and used extremely hard 
and insulting words towards the Prince ; the formal 
reply given to Briquemart being that the King had 
better send M. Damville, or some other person with 
whom the Queen could treat, as she did not choose to 
negotiate with a messenger from the Prince of Conde. 
During Briquemault's stay here the King of France 
has sent some troops to Honfleur and Havre de 
Grace, and on the last day of April wrote a very 
humble letter to this Queen saying that as her 
occupation of the place had been, as she said, only 
for his benefit, he begged her now to be pleased to 
give it up, and remain a good friend to him in 
accordance with the treaty of Cateau Cambresis, 
and at the same time he sent a letter to his ambas- 
sador, instructing him to say that if the place were 
not surrendered he should be obliged to send an army 
against it. Last Thursday the ambassador gave his 
letter to the Queen, but no answer was vouchsafed 
him, except that she would consider the matter, and 
give her reply later. She spoke very violently of the 
Prince of Conde, calling him inconstant, lying and 
worthless (or naughty as they say here). The 
ambassador asked yesterday for the reply, and Cecil 
sent word that the Queen would send it through her 
own ambassador in France. The Ambassador tried 
hard to obtain another audience, in virtue of the 
credence he had handed her, and at last obtained 
one, when he asked her either to surrender Havre 
de Grace, or tell him her reasons for keeping it, and 



286 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

if she thought of imposing conditions for its sur- 
render, he begged her to tell him what they were. 
In order not to lose time he said that if these included 
the restitution of Calais before the time agreed upon, 
he might say at once that it would not be granted. 

The Ambassador says the Queen replied at great 
length and very confusedly, not refusing to surrender 
the place or mentioning any other conditions except 
Calais. 

Six days later the Venetian Ambassador in Paris wrote 

that war had been proclaimed there against England, and 

artillery and ammunition sent in the direction of Havre. 

" The Queen of England," he added, " according to the reply 

lately received from the gentleman who was sent to her about 

this business, still insists upon having the 200,000 francs 

disbursed for that place, and the interest due subsequently, 

and also security for the restitution of Calais in due season." 1 

Huguenots and Catholics now combined to expel their ancient 

enemy from Havre, where Warwick awaited the siege with 

an army sadly reduced in numbers by the plague, as well 

as by the French. But for the disease the defence might 

have held out, but the original garrison died like flies, and 

reinforcements by the thousand arrived only to add to this 

frightful mortality. While Warwick was thus fighting 

against hopeless odds, and prepared to die sword in hand 

with the remnants of his army, Elizabeth at home declined 

to acknowledge defeat, or to discuss Conde's terms of peace. 

She was negotiating with Lethington at the same time and 

warning him against any marriage of which she did not 

personally approve for Mary. Philip's reply to Quadra's 

news of the Don Carlos scheme was not calculated to help 

matters in that direction : 

PHILIP II. TO BISHOP QUADRA. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

Madrid, June 15, 1563. 

I have noted the long discussion you had with 
Lethington, and what he said to you respecting the 

1 Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII., p. 356. 



LOVE AND WAR 287 

marriage of the Queen of Scotland, his mistress, with 
the Prince, my son, and also of the manner in which 
you answered him and bore yourself towards him. I 
highly approve of your conduct in the matter, which 
was marked with great prudence, and seeing that the 
bringing about of this marriage may perhaps be the 
beginning of a reformation in religious matters in 
England, I have decided to entertain the negotiation. 
You will see that it is carried on in the same way 
that it has been commenced, if you consider that safe 
and secret, telling them to inform you of all the 
engagements and understandings they have in 
England, and you, knowing how valuable such 
knowledge may be to me, will carefully advise me 
of everything, together with your own opinion upon 
it. You will inform me step by step of all that 
happens in the matter, but without settling anything, 
except to find out the particulars referred to above, 
until I send you word what I desire shall be done. 
You may, however, assure them that my intentions 
are such as I mention in this letter, but you must 
urge them, above all, to use the greatest secrecy in 
the business, and all negotiations connected with it, 
as all the benefit to be derived from the affair 
depends absolutely upon nothing being heard of it 
until it is an accomplished fact. If it becomes 
known that such negotiations are being carried on, 
and that I am concerned in them, the French will be 
greatly alarmed, and will strenuously endeavour by 
some means or another to frustrate them. Even if 
they cannot do that they will try their hardest to 
counteract any profitable result that might arise, 
understanding that it will be entirely to their detri- 
ment. As for the Queen of England and her 
heretics, they are so deeply interested that you may 
easily judge what they would do if they heard of it, 
and, therefore, as I say, it is absolutely necessary 
that you should keep secret, and urge secrecy on the 
persons with whom you treat, so that they may make 
the Queen their mistress also capable of it. The 



288 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

Emperor, depending upon the representations made 
to him by Cardinal Lorraine, looks upon the match 
with the Archduke Charles as certain. I send you 
attached an account of Cardinal Lorraine's informa- 
tion to the Emperor. The latter does not know the 
feeling of the Queen and her ministers about it, as 
you have been able to inform me, but if I saw any 
appearance of the Archduke's match being carried 
through, and of the possibility of getting from it the 
same advantages as at present appear derivable from 
the marriage with my son, I would embrace and 
promote it to the full extent of my power in preference 
to the latter, for the affection I bear to the Emperor 
my uncle and his sons. 

What has moved me to take this business up and 
not to wait until the Emperor has been undeceived 
about it, has been the information you send me 
respecting the objections entertained by the Queen 
and her ministers to the match with the Archduke, 
and the small benefit they think they will derive from 
it ; but, above all, your advice that they were about 
to enter into negotiations for the marriage of their 
Queen with the King of France. I will bear in mind 
the trouble and anxiety I underwent from King 
Francis when he was married to this Queen, and I 
am sure that if he had lived we could not have 
avoided plunging into war ere this on the ground of 
my protection of the Queen of England, whose 
country he would have invaded as he intended to do. 
To be at war on account of other people's affairs is a 
state of things which, you will agree with me, is to 
be avoided and is not at all to my liking, but in this 
case, seeing whom I should be obliging, it would be 
doubly disagreeable. With regard to the adherents 
the Scots will have in England, and the increasing 
of their number if necessary, you will not interfere in 
any way further than you have done hitherto, but let 
them do it themselves, and gain what friends and 
sympathy they can for their opinions amongst the 
Catholics, and those upon whom they depend. I say 



LOVE AND WAR 289 

this because, if anything should be discovered, they 
should be the persons to be blamed, and no one in 
connexion with us. 

I note your remarks concerning the hope that the 
Catholics and good men in England place in me, and 
I certainly desire their welfare and amelioration with 
all my heart. You may assure them thus much, and 
encourage and console them through your usual 
channels, but do not for the world show yourself in 
the matter, as you know what the result might be. 

But Lethington, in Quadra's opinion, as he states in his 
next letter, was now convinced of the futility of marrying 
Mary against Elizabeth's wishes : 

BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II. 

Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, June 26, 1562. 

Lethington left here on the 20th instant. I spoke 
a considerable time with him as he was starting, and 
he said that the Queen of England had commanded 
him to tell his mistress that she had heard of negotia- 
tions having been commenced for her marriage with 
our lord the Prince, or with the Archduke Charles, 
and she openly told her and protested that if she 
married either of them, or any member of the House 
of Austria, she could not avoid being her enemy, and 
she consequently charged her to consider well what 
step she took in such matter. At the same time, if 
she married a person to the Queen's satisfaction, she 
would not fail to be a good friend and sister to her 
and make her her heir, instead of being as she other- 
wise would be, her mortal enemy. Lethington had 
told the same story to the ambassador of France, 
adding also that this Queen objected to the marriage 
of the Queen of Scotland with the French King. I 
asked Lethington whom he thought the Queen wished 
her to marry, and he said he imagined it was some 
private gentleman, and as a last resort, she would 
agree to the King of Denmark or another Protestant 

e.m.s. u 



2Q0 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

Prince, or even with the Duke of Ferrara, or a person 
of similar position in France. I also asked him if he 
thought his mistress would consent to do as the 
Queen wished, to which he answered that he feared 
not, although if she desired to please her subjects and 
succeed in her affairs she ought to do so. He again 
repeated that he did not know how they could put up 
with the Archduke Charles in Scotland, as he is so 
poor, and they had no money to help him. 

In short it seemed to me, unless he is a very good 
actor, that he (Lethington) was going back confirmed 
in his determination to persuade his mistress to marry 
a husband chosen for her by this Queen, or at least 
one that was not objectionable to her, since on this 
condition he says, she has promised her the succes- 
sion. I am quite sure they will not keep this promise 
any better than the previous promises they have 
made. Many people think that if the Queen of Scot- 
land does marry a person unacceptable to this Queen, 
the latter will declare as her successor the son of 
Lady Margaret, whom she now keeps in the palace, 
and shows such favour to as to make this appear 
probable. I am also informed, and believe it, that if 
the Queen of Scotland does not marry our lord the 
Prince, even though she take the Archduke, many of 
her people will incline rather to Lady Margaret's son 
than to the Archduke, because if they cannot come 
into the hands of your Majesty they would rather 
have an Englishman than a poor foreigner. 

That was nearly the last letter that the wily but faithful 
Quadra was to write, for death was shortly to bring him 
release from a post which had grown more and more irksome 
and dangerous every year since the Queen's accession. Only 
three months before he had begged his master's permission 
to retire : 

Public affairs here and my own private troubles and 
necessities (he wrote) force me to beg your Majesty 
to be pleased to allow me to leave this island. I am 
of but little use here, and my residence is so costly 



LOVE AND WAR 291 

and onerous that, apart from my pecuniary estate, in 
which I am totally ruined, I am suffering much in 
health and all else. ... I can truly say that I desire 
life for no other purpose than to serve your Majesty, 
as is my duty, but this residence of so many years 
here without any other means than those furnished 
for my support by your Majesty's orders, has become 
quite intolerable, and I lack every resource and 
expedient for carrying on any longer. I supplicate 
your Majesty to be pleased to convince yourself of this 
and order enquiry to be made, when it will be proved 
that for the many years I have served I have been 
spending all the little property I had without ever 
receiving a single favour, which I think arises from 
the fact that I have always served in foreign parts, 
and because I have been more diligent in doing my 
duty worthily than in soliciting and importuning. If 
I importune now I do so forced by my need, my trouble, 
and my afflictions, which grieve me most because they 
hinder me from serving your Majesty as I could wish. 1 

Philip, however, valued his services too highly to release 
him at such a critical juncture in Anglo-Scottish affairs. He 
drove him to despair also by the half-hearted way in which 
he proposed to deal with the suggested marriage between 
Mary Stuart and Don Carlos. Quadra had some reason to 
believe that Lethington's dream of that alliance had dissolved 
through the lack of an appropriate response, and that the 
English Catholics, whose chief hopes were not centred in 
the Queen of Scots, would do nothing in face of such leaden 
methods as Philip suggested. " In view of this grave state 
of things," wrote Quadra to the Duke of Alba on July 17, 
" I think the instructions his Majesty has given me are 
inadequate and not sufficiently decided, not because the 
greatness of the crisis does not call for all due deliberation, 
but because I think the remedy is a weak one for so dangerous 
a malady. When they see that instead of giving them a firm 
reply we come to them only with halting proposals, I do not 
know what they will think of it." 2 Yet the state of England, 

1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., pp. 319 — 20. 

2 Ibid. 

U 2 



292 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

as seen through his prejudiced eyes, and as, apparently, it 
was pictured to him by the firm adherents of the old Faith — 
who gave him lists of Catholics and others ready to raise 
troops for Mary's service when the hour was struck for 
Elizabeth's removal — convinced him that the time was ripe 
for revolt. The marvel was, he told Philip after some of the 
Catholic noblemen had been pouring out their grievances to 
him, that disturbances had not already broken out, " con- 
sidering the grave and numerous causes of discontent that 
exist. The only way to account for it is that the force of 
tradition, and lack of spirit amongst the principal people, 
make them obedient to the name of the monarch apart from 
the power or substance, which certainly this Queen does not 
possess, being as she is so unpopular and despised, without 
troops, without money, and without harmony, at enmity 
with all the world." 1 

So that when presently laid low by sickness — probably by 
the plague which raged fiercely in London that summer — 
and the Bishop realised that his end was near, he grieved 
most of all that he should drop from his work just when he 
hoped to succeed. His last words, as one of his colleagues 
informed the King, were : " I can do no more." Quadra was 
reviled enough by Englishmen in his lifetime — " crafty old 
fox " Bishop Jewel called him — and has not been spared by 
modern historians. Let me at least register a tribute of 
respect for a man who, though not without his faults, did 
his best, according to his day and generation, and filled a 
difficult post faithfully to the bitter end. 

Elizabeth's unhappy venture in France was now reaching 
its dramatic close at Havre, where the Earl of Warwick — 
with the permission at length received from Elizabeth to 
surrender at the last extremity — capitulated on July 28 under 
conditions which gave his troops time to deliver up the town 
and embark with all their possessions for England. Warwick 
himself was ill and wounded in the leg — by a poisoned bullet 
fired while he was negotiating terms from the ramparts — and 
his heroic army reduced to a mere handful. Cecil, inform- 
ing Archbishop Parker on August 1 that Warwick had been 
given authority to deliver up the town on the conditions 
1 Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 321. 



LOVE AND WAR 293 

agreed upon, added: "This necessity the plague brought, 
and was inevitable." 1 The end of the siege is strikingly 
depicted by the Venetian Ambassador at the Court of 
France, who left Charles IX. and the Queen-Mother at 
Rouen to witness the closing scenes : 

MARC ANTONIO BARBARO TO THE SIGNORY. 
[Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII.] 

Under Havre de Grace, July 29, 1563. 

Yesterday, on my arrival at the camp, the troops 
within Havre de Grace were parleying with the 
Constable to surrender the town, and come to an 
agreement to depart thence safe with their baggage. So 
they have obtained four days' time to cross the sea, and 
in the meanwhile they have surrendered the fort with 
a large tower of the city. On my arrival here there 
was a truce for the convention, so I was able con- 
veniently to inspect the outer walls, the trenches, and 
what had been done thereabouts. The garrison 
within were in fact reduced to a sorry plight, for the 
besiegers were about to storm the place, as they had 
already battered effectually and dismantled a bulwark 
and several towers of the port, and filled up the whole 
moat, so that with but a little more work they would 
have opened the road for themselves securely with 
a spade. 

The besiegers had battered so furiously that I 
know not what fortress could have withstood them ; 
and they had moreover a battery of forty cannon, so 
that whereas at first they used only to fire twenty or 
thirty shots each day, they now discharged more 
than one hundred and twenty, so that it is almost 
incredible to conceive the actual force which was 
poured forth from the batteries, and notwithstanding 
that the besieged have used their powerful artillery 
and harquebuses, and killed more than one thousand 
of the besiegers, the latter are so confident that they 
make light of their losses. 

1 Parker Correspondence. 



294 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

This capture, according to military opinions, has 
been one of the greatest achieved for many years 
past, both on account of the nature of the fortress, 
considered to be very strong, as well as for the 
service, reputation, and advantage of the Crown. 
The locality is surrounded for the distance of one 
mile by a marsh, and by the waters of the sea, 
which are cut by inaccessible canals. There is a 
strand of sand on the seaside only, which may be 
about thirty paces distant from the wall. The 
besiegers passed along the shore somewhat concealed 
by the sand and gravel cast up by the sea, and 
established themselves and their artillery between 
this strand and the sea, and opened fire. The 
besiegers were placed below the high-water mark, 
and if the tide had overflowed the artillery, they must 
have retired with the loss of it. Your Serenity may 
now imagine the joy felt by the Queen at the result 
of this undertaking, which is so beneficial to the 
kingdom and which has come to pass solely by her 
will and contrary to the opinion of all the chief 
ministers. This event has deprived those of the new 
religion of all heart, and it is hoped that the affairs 
of the Catholics will henceforth, God willing, proceed 
in better form, and indeed the Catholics themselves 
seem in high spirits. The King and Queen are to 
come this morning to the camp, and I intend to go 
immediately to their Majesties, to congratulate them 
on so great a victory, and I shall then think of 
departing hence, because all these parts are infected 
with plague ; nor can one dwell otherwise than in 
tents in the open country with such inconveniences 
as usually follow armies. 

Lord Warwick is in Havre de Grace wounded by a 
harquebus shot in the leg ; he is the brother of the 
Lord Robert [Dudley]. 

The belated fleet under Lord Edward Clinton hove in 
sight too late to save the situation. The terms of the 
agreement had already begun to take effect, and Warwick 



LOVE AND WAR 295 

himself, in miserable plight, had embarked in readiness to 
make the passage to Portsmouth. Clinton was doubtless 
disgusted at finding himself too late, but the English 
account of his behaviour is very different from that 
supplied by the Venetian Ambassador in his next letter : 

MARC ANTONIO BARBARO TO THE STGNORY. 
[Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII.] 

Rouen, August 6, 1563. 

On the 28th ultimo the English in Havre de Grace 
agreed to surrender the place to the King, and to 
embark in four days ; then on the 30th July the 
Admiral of England [Lord Admiral Clinton] appeared 
in sight of that place, with thirty ships, and five 
galliots to succour it, not knowing that the capitula- 
tion had been already made. The King's artillery 
was then directed towards the sea, to prevent the 
Admiral from doing what he intended, and the 
Admiral became aware he had arrived too late, 
because the agreement was in part effected, and 
many of the English garrison had embarked ; the 
King being master of the fort and harbour. So 
the Admiral was given to understand by his most 
Christian Majesty, that if he had anything to say, 
he might land freely, when he would be welcomed 
and well received ; but he replied that he had no 
other commission but to succour Havre de Grace ; 
and that those within having shown themselves more 
solicitous to surrender than became them, he would 
not say more, and thus he set sail the same evening 
with the fleet, nor is it known in what direction he 
has gone. The English still left then departed, and 
the King's army entered on Sunday the 1st of August, 
some French infantry being left there as a garrison ; 
and the Constable will remain for four or six days to 
give orders to repair the fortress and for other 
necessary purposes. The King has retired some 
leagues from the camp on account of the plague. 

What happened on Clinton's arrival was related by the 



296 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

Admiral himself to Cecil, in a letter describing how, the 
weather having changed, he had arrived at Havre to find 
that all was over, and that Warwick himself was on board a 
transport ready to sail. 

The Queen-Mother had sent M. de Lignerolles on board 
the Admiral's ship with an invitation to dine with her. He 
excused himself on the plea that he could not leave his men ; 
but he said to Lignerolles " that the plague of deadly infec- 
tion had done more for them than that which all the force of 
France could never have done." 1 Before returning to Ports- 
mouth, too, he left ships at Havre to bring off the rest of the 
garrison. It was from Havre that England caught the 
plague which now spread its evil shadow over every part of the 
country. London was the chief sufferer, Camden stating 
that out of that city alone " there were carried forth to bury- 
ing about 21,530 corpses." Like most visitations of the kind 
it was regarded as a punishment from God : 

JOHN ABEL TO HENRY BULLINGER. 

["Zurich Letters." Second Series.] 

London, August 24, 1563. 

Our Lord God is very angry with us for our 
ingratitude ; for His holy word is daily preached here 
among us, and we have not loved nor followed the same, 
nor commended it by our lives : wherefore He has 
this last year sent a great dearth among us, and now 
He has sent such a plague and pestilence that in the 
city which our English took last year in Normandy, 
some thousands have died so wonderfully by reason of 
the plague, that our people have quitted the said town, 
and are returned from thence with all their goods and 
artillery and arms, &c, by which means the plague 
is so rife in London, that there are dying by the 
pestilence five or six hundred a week : and there is 
reason to fear that if our Lord should not have com- 
passion upon us, it will become yet more prevalent, 
for it has only just begun. God give us His grace 
and holy Spirit that we may amend our lives, that His 

1 Froude. 



LOVE AND WAR 297 

holy name may be praised and magnified thereby ; 
and then will He take away this plague. His holy 
will be done from henceforth and for evermore. Amen. 

The cloud was not without its silver lining for those 
prisoners in the Tower whose lives were considered worth 
saving. Lady Catherine Grey and Lord Hertford were both 
removed from London and placed, the one with her uncle, 
Lord John Grey of Pyrgo, and the other with his mother, 
Anne, Duchess of Somerset. Earlier in the year the unlucky 
lovers, by the birth of another child to Lady Catherine, dis- 
closed the fact that they had found means of further inter- 
course in the Tower. This, as was to be expected, greatly 
added to the Queen's vexation. Hertford was fined fifteen 
thousand pounds for what was regarded as his triple crime — 
five thousand for seducing a maiden of the blood-royal ; five 
thousand for breaking his prison ; and five thousand for 
repeating his vicious act. Lord John Grey had begged Cecil, 
to whom he was related by marriage, to remember his niece's 
" miserable and comfortless state " and do what he could to 
relieve her. " In faith," he wrote, " I would I were the 
Queen's confessor this Lent, that I might join her in penance 
to forgive and forget ; or otherwise able to step into the pulpit, 
to tell her Highness, that God will not forgive her, unless she 
freely forgive all the world." 1 

It was only the plague, however, which induced Elizabeth 
to relax her severity later in the year. The Council made it 
plain to Lord John Grey that his niece was still to be 
regarded as a prisoner : 

Her Majesty's pleasure is that the said lady shall 
remain with him and his wife as in custody during Her 
Majesty's pleasure ; nor is she to have conference 
with any person not being of his Lordship's house- 
hold without their knowledge ; which Her Majesty 
meaneth her to understand and observe as some 
part of her punishment, and therein Her Majesty 
meaneth to try her disposition towards obedience. 
Of their own part, as they wish that she should not 

1 Ellis's "Original Letters." Second Series, Vol. II. 



298 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

long lack Her Majesty's favour, but recover it by all 
good means, they heartily pray his Lordship to see 
that her demeanour in his Lordship's house is the 
same as if she were in the Tower until she may attain 
more favour of Her Majesty, for it is true that Her 
Majesty meant no more by this liberty than to remove 
her from the danger of the plague, and so they pray 
his Lordship to let her plainly understand. 1 

Lord John Grey expressed his gratitude to Cecil in the 
following letter : 

LORD JOHN GREY TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 
[Ellis's " Original Letters." Second Series, Vol. II.] 

Pyrgo, August 29, 1563. 

Good cousin Cecil, what cause all we have to think 
ourselves bounden and beholden unto you, the lively 
fact of your great friendship in the delivery of my 
niece to my custody are sufficient pledges and tokens 
for our bondage unto you during our lives. And 
although I can justly lament the cause of her 
imprisonment, yet can I not lament thus far forth 
her being there, because I see it hath been the only 
means whereby she hath seen herself, known God, 
and her duty to the Queen ; which when it shall 
further please the Queen's Majesty to make trial of, 
I doubt not but my saying, and her doings, shall 
accord ; in which meantime I shall, according to my 
Lord Robert's letter, and yours, directed unto me, 
see all things observed accordingly. Assure yourself 
(cousin Cecil) she is a penitent and sorrowful woman 
for the Queen's displeasure, and most humbly and 
heartily desires you to finish what your friendship 
begun, for the obtaining of the Queen's favour in the 
full remission of her fault. This with my wife's 
hearty commendations and mine to you and my good 
lady (our cousin) your wife, I bid you most heartily 
farewell. 

By your loving Cousin, and assured poor friend 
during life, John Grey. 

1 Hatfield MSS., L, p. 280. 



LOVE AND WAR 299 

Lady Catherine's hopes were cruelly raised by her removal 
from the Tower. No words are needed to add to the pathos of 
the three ensuing documents — her letter to Cecil shortly after 
arriving at Pyrgo, her later petition to the Queen, and one 
of many letters from Lord John Grey himself on her woeful 
state of mind and body : 

LADY CATHERINE GREY TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 
[Ellis's "Original Letters.'" Second Series, Vol. II.] 

Pyrgo, September 3, 1563. 

Good cousin Cecil : after my very hearty commen- 
dations to my good cousin your wife and you, with 
like thanks for your great friendship showed me in 
this my lord's delivery and mine, with the obtaining 
of the Queen's Majesty's most gracious favour thus 
farforth extended towards us, I cannot but acknow- 
ledge myself bounden and beholding unto you there- 
fore ; and as I am sure you doubt not of mine own 
dear lord's good will for the requital thereof to the 
uttermost of his power, so I beseech you, good cousin 
Cecil, make the like account of me during life to the 
uttermost of my power ; beseeching your further 
friendship for the obtaining of the Queen's Majesty's 
most gracious pardon and favour towards me, which 
with upstretched hands and downbent knees, from 
the bottom of my heart, most humbly I crave. Thus 
resting in prayer for the Queen's Majesty's long 
reign over us, the forgiveness of mine offence, the 
short enjoying of my own dear lord and husband, 
with assured hope, through God's grace, and your 
good help, and my Lord Robert, for the enjoying ot 
the Queen's Highness's favour in that behalf, I bid 
now, my own good cousin, most heartily farewell. 

Your assured friend and cousin to my small power, 

Catherine Hertford. 

LORD JOHN GREY TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 
[Ellis's "Original Letters." Second Series, Vol. II.] 

Pyrgo, September 20, 1563. 

My good cousin Cecil, the only desire and care 
that my lady hath of the Queen's Majesty's favour 



300 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

enforceth these few lines, as nature bindeth me to 
put you in remembrance of your offered friendship 
and great good will, already showed, to the full 
perfecting of the Queen's Majesty's favour in my 
niece. I assure you cousin Cecil (as I have written 
unto my Lord Robert) the thought and care she 
taketh for the want of her Highness's favour, pines 
her away : before God I speak it, if it come not the 
sooner she will not long live thus ; she eateth not 
above six morsels in the meal. If I say unto her, 
" Good madam, eat somewhat to comfort yourself," 
she falls aweeping and goeth up to her chamber ; 
if I ask her what the cause is she useth herself in 
that sort, she answers me, " Alas, Uncle, what a life 
is this to me, thus to live in the Queen's displeasure ; 
but for my lord, and my children, I would to God 
I were buried." Good cousin Cecil, as time places, 
and occasion may serve, ease her of this woeful grief 
and sorrow, and rid me of this life, which I assure 
you grieveth me even at the heart's roots. Thus 
beseeching God in this His visitation, to preserve us 
with His stretched-out arm, and send us, merely to 
meet, I salute you and my lady with my wife's most 
hearty commendations and mine. 

By your loving cousin and assured poor friend 
during my life, 

John Grey. 

LADY CATHERINE'S PETITION TO THE QUEEN. 
[Ellis's " Original Letters.'" Second Series, Vol. II.] 

Pyrgo, November 6, 1563. 

I dare not presume most gracious Sovereign, to 
crave pardon for my disobedient and rash matching 
of myself, without your Highness's consent ; I only 
most humbly sue unto your Highness to continue 
your merciful nature toward me. I acknowledge 
myself a most unworthy creature to feel so much of 
your gracious favour as I have done. My justfelt 
misery and continual grief doth teach me daily, more 



LOVE AND WAR 301 

and more, the greatness of my fault, and your princely 
pity increaseth my sorrow, that have so forgotten my 
duty towards your Majesty. This is my great torment 
of mind. May it therefore please your excellent 
Majesty to license me to be a most lowly suitor unto 
your Highness to extend toward my miserable state 
your Majesty's further favour and accustomed mercy, 
which upon my knees in all humble wise I crave, 
with my daily prayers to God, long to continue and 
preserve your Majesty's Reign over us. 

Your Majesty's most humble bounden and obedient 
subject. 

But Elizabeth was rarely, if ever, moved to tenderness, 

and, as will shortly be seen, was not encouraged to mercy 

by Lord Grey's share in John Hales' book on the succession 

question, published about this time (see p. 308). When 

danger from the plague was over we find both husband and 

wife back again at the Tower, though, as before, in separate 

lodgings, and death alone was able to give Catherine her 

freedom. The only changes allowed her were for the benefit 

of her health, when she would occasionally be removed to 

Cockfield Hall, the country seat of Sir Owen Hopton, 

Lieutenant of the Tower. It was at this place that she 

died, on January 27, 1568. Her death led to her husband's 

release from the Tower later in the same year, though he 

remained for some time in easy custody in various country 

houses. Meantime, while the plague lasted in London, the 

Queen withdrew her Court to Windsor, where she found 

relief from the cares of State by enjoying great sport 

in the forest, as Dudley informed Archbishop Parker, in 

sending him " a fat stag killed with her own hand." * 

Perhaps this was sent because of a sly remark in one of 

the Archbishop's letters earlier in the year, pointing out 

that Queen Anne Boleyn used to send him bucks from her 

park at Canterbury. " Marry," he added, " I doubt in these 

days whether bishops or ministers may be thought worthy 

to eat venison ; I will hold me to my beef, and make merry 

therewith, and pray for all my benefactors." 2 

1 Parker Correspondence, p. 190. 
3 Ibid., p. 178. 



CHAPTER VIII 

LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 

Elizabeth's New Matrimonial Negotiations — Cecil Philosophizes — 
Fears of a French Invasion — Mary and Lord Robert Dudley — 
Peace Declared Between England and France — John Hales' 
Book on the Succession — Reception of the New Spanish 
Ambassador — Elizabeth's Anxiety Regarding Mary Stuart's 
Marriage — Dudley Again Seeks Spanish Support for His Alliance 
with Elizabeth — Darnley and His Mother at Court — Her 
Majesty's Visit to Cambridge — Coolness between Elizabeth and 
Mary — Melville's Mission to the English Court — Dudley Dis- 
claims Responsibility for his Proposed Marriage with Mary — 
Melville's Famous Interview with Elizabeth — Dudley created 
Earl of Leicester — Elizabeth Plays a Trick on Guzman — She 
Declares Herself a Catholic at heart — Young King of France 
a Suitor for Elizabeth's Hand — Mary Stuart, Leicester, and 
Darnley — Cecil's Despair — The Thames Frozen Over — Guzman's 
Opinion of Cecil and Leicester — Was Mary Willing to Marry 
Leicester ? — Her Promise to Randolph — Randolph's Congratula- 
tions to Leicester — His Consternation on Hearing of Darnley's 
Permission to Enter Scotland — Darnley's Arrival and Reception 
— Bothwell's Uninvited Return and Departure. 

Although the death of the Spanish Ambassador, as well 
as that of the Emperor Ferdinand, had afforded Elizabeth 
temporary relief from the eternal marriage problem, the 
strained relations between England and France, and the 
possibility that Mary might step in if she retired altogether, 
soon made it advisable again to renew negotiations for the 
hand of the Archduke Charles. The new year, too, brought 
a new suitor upon the scene — the famous Duke Hans 
Casimir, second son of the Elector Palatine, who sent his 
portrait to her by James Melville, then in his father's 
diplomatic service. Melville demurred, declaring he had 
heard that Elizabeth knew herself incapable of bearing a 
child, alleging besides her determination that she " would 
never subject herself to any man." Eventually, however, 
he consented to sound the Queen on the subject while 
ostensibly visiting her for some other purpose, with the 
result, as he explains at length in his Memoirs, that he 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 303 

discovered "that first and last she despised the said Duke 
Casimir." There is something definitive about that decision 
which is refreshing to the student of Elizabeth's courtships. 
The early months of 1564 were largely spent in patching up 
the differences between England and France, the success of 
the negotiations being seriously endangered by the unseemly 
squabbles between the two English Ambassadors, Throck- 
morton and Smith. So bitter was the hatred between these 
two ambassadors that it came to drawing daggers when 
they discussed the final terms of peace. They had been 
quarrelling on this occasion as to whether they should stand 
out for the 500,000 crowns on Elizabeth's account for the 
non-restoration of Calais, or accept the French terms of 
120,000 crowns for the return of their hostages. Why 
" haggle any longer for money ? " asked Throckmorton 
angrily, when the Queen-Mother already knew that they 
had another commission to agree to her sum. Smith 
wanted to know how she came to understand that. " ' Marry, 
you told her,' said he to me," wrote Smith in recounting the 
incident to Cecil. " ' I told her ? ' quoth I, ' why or how 
should I tell her, when I know not of it myself ? And yet 
if I had known it, what pleasure or profit should I have 
by telling her of it ? ' ' Thou liest,' saith he, ' like an 
whoreson traitor as thou art ! ' 'A whoreson traitor ! Nay 
thou liest,' quoth I, ' I am as true to the Queen as thou 
any day in the week, and have done Her Highness as 
faithful and good service as thou.' Hereupon Sir Nicholas 
drew his dagger and poured out such terms as his malicious 
stomach and furious rage had in store, and called me 
errant knave, beggarly knave, traitor, and such other 
injuries as came next to hand out of his good store. I 
drew my dagger also, Mr. Somers stepped betwixt us, 
but as he pressed with his dagger to come near me, I 
bade him stand back and not come no nearer to me, or I 
would cause him to stand back, and give him such a mark 
as his bedlam furious head did deserve." Sir Nicholas's 
tongue proved readier than his hand, according to this 
account, and with many other frothy words the incident 
ended. Cecil sided with his old friend, Sir Thomas Smith, 
who in the end, remained in France — to bring about in due 



304 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

course that new friendship with that kingdom which was 
to play so large a part in England's future foreign policy 
— while Throckmorton, gladly enough, returned to England. 
Cecil early this year wrote a letter to Smith in which the 
man himself, as well as the Secretary of State, stands 
revealed with singular clearness : 

SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO SIR THOMAS SMITH. 

[Wright's "Queen Elizabeth and her Times.'"'] 

January n, 1564. 
Sir, 

I have much cause to thank you for your friendly 
dealing with me, and as much or more cause to 
praise you for your open and plain dealing, which 
I assure you on my faith I do allow more in you 
than any other point of your friendship. I love 
wisdom and honour it, but when slights and crinks 
are joined therewith, as I am sorry sometimes to see, 
commonly thereof followeth infinite incommodities 
both to the party that useth them, and to them also 
that are therewith advised. I know the place which 
I hold hath been of years not long passed, adjudged 
a shop for cunning men, and yet surely I think the 
opinion commonly conceived thereof hath been 
worse than the persons deserved. Some cause I 
have so to think, that, knowing before Almighty God 
my disposition to deal with all men plainly, and 
indeed my inability, or as I may say of myself my 
dullness to invent crafts, yet do I not escape evil 
judgment, desirous to avoid as much as I may that 
opinion ; and where I cannot, content with patience 
and testimony of my own conscience to endure. But 
behold I am entering at a large gate, to behold mine 
own misery, which, to avoid giving you trouble I will 
not pursue now. To yourself I will now come ; you 
have not been well used, but by whom perchance 
you may know better than I. You have been also 
well used, and of whom I will not speak, considering 
I know no man hath done more than honesty and 
reason would. . . . God amend them that, meaning 



\ 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 305 

to make traps of malice, are for the more part 
trapped themselves. I shall speak like an Italian 
idiot ! God send them both to amend, and to do as 
I would myself, and this I say with the testimony of 
a good conscience ; which mind I gather not of any 
other philosophy, but of His precepts, that hath 
commanded me to love my enemies, for therein 
only is the difference between a Christian and a 
gentile. For yourself I need give you no counsel, 
but I wish you to have the like mind. For when all 
the glory and wit, when all the wealth and delight 
of this world is passed, we must come before that 
Judge that will exact this rule of us, to discern us 
from the gentiles. Good Mr. Smith, take my low 
base style in this fond mood in good part, and behold 
it not with the wisdom of the world, for though my 
outward actions are most commonly in public things 
of the world, yet, I thank God, I do submit all my 
conceits and thoughts as mere folly, to the wisdom 
and piety of the Gospel. You may say it is strange 
to see a Secretary of State, that is an artificer of 
practices and counsels, to fall thus low into divinity. 
Well, so simple I am, whatsoever the world may 
judge of me for the place, and therein perchance I 
do deceive the world. 

Now shortly to our matter : you are willed to make 
peace, but the means are prescribed, which I and 
others thought unlikely three months past : but now 
I find divers here persuade themselves with the 
contrary. Surely you shall have good luck and 
great praise, and therefore labour it. I was glad 
this bearer should come to give a testimony of your 
diligence, faith, and wisdom, for so shall he do you 
much pleasure. And although the matter seem 
hard, yet forbear not to use all means to recover it, 
wherein, being obtained, your praise shall be the 
greater, and being not, yet they which have desired 
it shall think your labour well bestowed. Indeed if 
our other neighbour on that side the seas were as 
inward a friend as reason would even for his own 

e.m.s. x 



306 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

interest, I then would not doubt of this good end. 
But as this bearer shall show you, the case is 
otherwise. I heartily thank you for the Polydore, 
and for Onuphrius : Onuphrius' works I had 
recovered here before, but Polydore not. If you 
please the Onuphrius shall be kept for yourself, or 
if I may know the price, I will gladly pay for them. 

The nervous state of the country at this period may be 
judged by Archbishop Parker's fears of a French invasion, 
and the inability of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports to 
ease the public mind on the subject, the castles on the coast 
being forsaken, and the people themselves unarmed : 

ARCHBISHOP PARKER TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 

{"Correspondence of Matthew Parker."] 

Canterbury, February 6, 1564. 

After my hearty commendations to your honour. 
Sir, I must request the same to be an instant mean 
(for special respect of our country here) to the Queen's 
Majesty and her Council. I assure your honour, I 
fear the danger, if it be not speedily looked to, will 
be irrecuperable. If the enemy have an entry, as 
by great considerations of our weakness and their 
strength, of their vigilancy and our dormitation and 
protraction, is like, the Queen's Majesty shall never 
be able to leave to her successor that which she 
found delivered her by God's favourable hand. Posts 
and letters with requests be sent, but little return is 
made, as I hear, and small aid and comfort cometh 
to my lord Warden, a good gentleman and meaneth 
honourably, but what can a man do more than may 
be done by a man almost destitute of men, money, 
and armour, &c. ? 

These early months of 1564 were also big with weighty 
matters in Scotland, where Randolph was doing his best to 
sound Mary Stuart on the pressing question of a husband. 
Nothing in the shape of serious negotiations had occurred 
in connexion with the Dudley plan since Elizabeth had 
astonished Lethington with the offer of her favourite's hand, 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 307 

but Randolph was now instructed to persuade Mary, if 
possible, to leave the question of her marriage to Elizabeth, 
who would be as good as a mother to her. Vague 
assurances as to Elizabeth's real intentions only succeeded 
in bringing matters to a standstill, but her maiden Majesty 
was at length compelled specifically to state that Dudley was 
really the husband she had in view for the Queen of Scots. 
Mary herself professed to be taken at a disadvantage with 
this news. " I thought little of any such matter as you now 
propound. ... Is it conformable to her promise to use me 
as a sister or daughter, to marry me to a subject ? . . . 
What if the Queen my sister should herself marry and have 
children ; what have I then gotten ? " However, she agreed 
to talk the matter over with Murray and Lethington. 
" Lethington was long with her Grace that night," added 
Randolph in his letter to Cecil of March 30, " and next 
morning I received this answer from him, with great pro- 
testation of his mistress's good meaning, without fraud or 
mind of evil — that the matter came upon her unlooked for, 
and being of great importance could not straight be answered. 
As she could not with honour in so short advertisement grant 
it, so would she not so little esteem it as straight reject it : 
and therefore desired to have further knowledge what the 
Queen's Majesty would do, what should be the conditions, 
and what the assurance. For the person himself she could 
have no mislikingof him, of whom the report was so good, and 
by her good sister was so recommended." 1 Elizabeth, how- 
ever, had no intention of making any definite promise that 
Mary's right to the succession — the crux of the whole matter 
— would be acknowledged even with the Dudley marriage, 
preferring her old policy of fair words and uncertain promises. 
" Gentle letters, good words, and pleasant messages, be good 
means to begin friendship among princes, but I take them 
to be slender bands to hold it long fast," complained Lething- 
ton to Cecil in June, in urging that with frank dealing the 
affair would " sooner a great deal grow to a conclusion." 2 
There was some excuse for the delay perhaps while England's 
negotiations with France were hanging in the balance, but 

1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. II., pp. 56 — 8. 
9 Ibid., pp. 66 — 7. 

X 2 



308 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

all anxiety on that score was quieted in April by the con- 
clusion of the Peace of Troyes on the nth of that month 
with the tardy acceptance of the French offer to pay 60,000 
crowns within six weeks, and a further 60,000 six weeks later : 

SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO SIR THOMAS SMITH. 

[Wright's "Queen Elizabeth and her Times"} 

April 27, 1564. 
Sir, 

Mr. Somers and Mauvissiere came to Windsor the 
20th of this month, and the treaty must take place 
the 23rd, which was a very short time to procure 
knowledge to our western sea coasts, or to Ireland, 
but what could be done in such a case was expedited. 
It was proclaimed in London the 22nd, and on the 
23rd a notable good sermon made at Pooles [St. 
Paul's] with Te Deum and all incident solemnities. 
The same day it was published at Windsor, in the 
Queen's Majesty's presence going to the Church, 
having with her Majesty the French ambassador, so 
as nothing wanted to show content, and yet her 
Majesty, inwardly to me and other her counsellors, 
showed much misliking, specially, as I guess, because 
the money was no more, for honour's sake. 

On that day the French King was chosen of the 
Order [of the Garter] and so was the Earl of Bedford, 
and Sir Henry Sidney. I think my Lord of Hunsdon 
shall bring the Order into France, and so shall have 
commission to require the oath jointly with you. 
The treaties are in new writing and engrossing, to be 
here ratified. Wherein all the haste is made that 
can be, because Mr. Throckmorton's return dependeth 
thereupon. . . . 

Here is fallen out a troublesome fond matter. John 
Hales 1 had secretly made a book in the time of the 
last parliament, wherein he hath taken upon him to 

1 "A Declaration of the Succession of the Crown Imperial of 
England." Its object was to throw aside the Scottish line, and to 
support the legality of the marriage of Lady Catherine Grey, whose 
son, in that case, would inherit the Suffolk claim to the royal 
succession. 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 309 

discuss no small matter, viz. the title to this crown, 
after the Queen's Majesty, having confuted and rejected 
the line of the Scottish Queen, and made the line of 
the Lady Frances, mother to the Lady Catherine, 
only next and lawful. He is committed to the Fleet 
for this boldness, especially because he hath com- 
municated it to sundry persons. My Lord John Grey 
is in trouble also for it. Besides this, John Hales hath 
procured sentences and counsels of lawyers from 
beyond the seas to be written in maintenance of the 
Earl of Hertford's marriage. 

This dealing of his offendeth the Queen's Majesty 
very much. God give her Majesty by this chance a 
disposition to consider hereof, that either by her 
marriage, or by some common order, we poor subjects 
may know where to lean and adventure our lives 
with content of our consciences. 

At the writing hereof I am here at Westminster, 
attending of that mine office in the wards, and so 
pestered with business as I am forced to make this 
letter serve both to Sir Nicholas Throckmorton and 
you. 

Yours assured, 

W. Cecil. 

Don Diego Guzman de Silva, Dean of Toledo, the Spanish 
Ambassador appointed to succeed the late Bishop Quadra, 
arrived at his difficult post in the midst of the excitement caused 
by the publication of this book by the injudicious clerk of the 
hanaper, John Hales. The book was believed to have been 
written with the knowledge, if not the help, of Sir Nicholas 
Bacon and his brother-in-law Cecil himself, and the Catholics 
were eager that the hated Secretary should be made the 
chief scapegoat for the affair. Hales himself was imprisoned 
in the Fleet for six months ; Bacon was reprimanded, and 
Lord John Grey, Lady Catherine's uncle, was kept under 
arrest until his death some months later. But, as Guzman 
says, the Queen stopped at that, finding " so many accom- 
plices in the offence that they must overlook it." At a later 
date he was told " for certain " that the Queen on no account 



310 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

desired the declaration of a successor. " She does not want 
anyone to whom her subjects could go secretly and offer 
their devotion as they came to her when she was a prisoner." 1 

GUZMAN DE SILVA TO PHILIP II. 
[Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, June 27, 1564. 

As I wrote to your Majesty, I arrived in London on 
the 18th instant, and on the following day, the Queen 
sent a gentleman of her chamber to visit me, and 
congratulate me on my arrival in this country, with 
many compliments and courtesies. Lord Robert had 
previously sent and made me a similar visit, which I 
returned by one of my people on the Tuesday, thank- 
ing him for having borne me in mind. I asked 
through him an audience of the Queen, which he 
obtained at once, and fixed the 22nd for it to take 
place. I left London for Richmond where the Court 
now is and disembarked near the palace, finding 
awaiting me on the riverbank Dudley, a relative of 
Lord Robert, who was in the French service, and a 
brother-in-law of Throckmorton, who accompanied 
me to the palace, and conducted me to the Council 
Chamber. Presently there came to me on behalf of 
the Queen Lord Darnley, the son of Lady Margaret 
Lennox, who led me to the door of the presence 
chamber, where I was met by the Lord Chamberlain, 
who entered with me and accompanied me to the 
Queen. She was standing in the chamber listening 
to a keyed instrument that was being played, and, as 
soon as she saw me, took three or four steps towards 
me and embraced me. Addressing me in the Italian 
language she said she did not know in what tongue 
to speak to me, and I answered her in Latin, with a 
brief discourse, a copy of which I send to Gonzalo 
Perez [the King's Secretary] as it is written in that 
language. I then handed her your Majesty's letter, 
which she took and gave to Cecil to open. When it 

1 Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 374. 



-LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 311 

was opened he handed it back to her, and she read it 
and answered me in Latin with elegance, facility and 
ease, appearing to be very glad of my coming, and 
saying how much she had desired it, both for the 
sake of having news of your Majesty and to have a 
Minister of your Majesty near her, as there were some 
friendly countries trying to make her believe that your 
Majesty would never again have a representative here, 
and she was glad that they had turned out false pro- 
phets. She said I should be treated and considered 
in accord with the deep interest which, for many 
reasons, she took in your Majesty's affairs. After 
asking after your Majesty's health she took me aside 
and asked me very minutely about the Prince — his 
health and disposition, and afterwards about the 
Princess, 1 saying how much she should like to see 
her, and how well so young a widow and a maiden 
would get on together, and what a pleasant life they 
could lead. She (the Queen) being the elder would 
be the husband, and her Highness the wife. She 
dwelt upon this for a time, talking now in Italian, 
which she speaks well, and, as if by the way, asked 
me about the Queen, and then turned the conversation 
to your Majesty, and how you had seen her when she 
was sorrowful, distressed, and ill-treated, imprisoned, 
and afflicted, and how she had grown greatly since 
then, and even gave me to understand that she had 
greatly changed in her appearance since that time. 
After she had said a great deal about this and other 
things of a similar sort, I gave her the letters from 
the Duchess of Parma, and conveyed her Highness' 
good wishes to her, to which she replied graciously, 
and then touched somewhat upon the affairs of the 
States, and even referred to the matter of the ill-treat- 
ment of the sailors at Gibralter. I only told her that 
I did not give any answer to that, as I wished to 
spend all the time in the pleasure of hearing of the 

1 Juana, the widowed princess of Portugal, younger sister of 
Philip. She had been regent of Spain during the absence of 
Charles V. and Philip from the Peninsula. — Hume. 



312 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

friendship and affection which she entertained towards 
your Majesty ; and on another day I would give her 
a full account of everything, so that she should see 
that not only did your Majesty show kindness and 
brotherhood towards her, but that your subjects, see- 
ing this, showed the same by their deeds, which was 
more than could be said of some of her subjects. 
She answered that when I liked, and as often as I 
liked, she would hear me with pleasure, and we could 
then deal with this matter. She urged me very much 
to use my best offices with your Majesty, and assure 
you of her good will, as she had been given to under- 
stand that this had not always been done by other 
ministers, and this might perhaps have caused your 
Majesty some annoyance without any fault of hers, or 
any cause on her part ; as she had given, and would 
give, none. With this she embraced me again, and 
retired to her apartment, telling me to talk to the 
lords who were there. They approached me as soon 
as she had retired, and Lord Robert, the Earl of Pem- 
broke, the Admiral, the Marquess of Northampton, 
the Lord Chamberlain, and Secretary Cecil, came 
separately and embraced me, congratulating me on 
my arrival and expressing their pleasure. They 
asked after your Majesty and I replied by assuring 
them of the favour you desired to extend to them, and 
your affection for this country and the principal 
people in it. I then took my leave, the Lord Cham- 
berlain remaining with me to conduct me to the door 
of the antechamber, and thence Lady Margaret's son, 
and the brother-in-law of Throckmorton, with a 
gentleman of the household of the Queen, accompanied 
me to the landing-place. 

A great friend of Lord Robert has been to visit me 
on his behalf, and has informed me of the great 
enmity that exists between Cecil and Lord Robert, 
even before this book about the succession was pub- 
lished, but now very much more, as be believes Cecil to 
be the author of the book, and the Queen is extremely 
angry about it, although she signifies that there are 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 313 

so many accomplices in the offence that they must 
overlook it, and has begun to slacken in the matter. 
This person has asked me from Robert with great 
secrecy to take an opportunity in speaking to the Queen 
(or to make such opportunity) to urge her not to fail 
in adopting strong measures in this business, as if 
Cecil were out of the way, the affairs of your Majesty 
would be more favourably dealt with, and religious 
questions as well, because this Cecil and his friends 
are those who persecute the Catholics and dislike 
your Majesty, whereas the other man is looked upon 
as faithful, and the rest of the Catholics so consider 
him, and have adopted him as their weapon. If the 
Queen would disgrace Cecil it would be a great good 
to them, and this man tried to persuade me to make 
use of Robert. I answered him that I intended to 
avail myself of him in all things, and I was quite 
sure your Majesty would be pleased that I should 
do so. With regard to this particular business, 
also, I would be glad to do as Robert desired. 
I shall act with caution in the matter and see how 
I had better proceed, although I have advice reaching 
me from all sides, and particularly from Catholics, that 
this punishment should be pressed upon the Queen. 

The amiable, courtly Guzman soon became a great 
favourite with Elizabeth, who not only liked him personally 
but also found it still advisable to trim her sails in his 
master's direction : 

GUZMAN DE SILVA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, July io, 1564. 

When I arrived at the house where the Queen was 
they showed me into a room until her Majesty knew 
of my arrival. She was walking in the garden with 
her ladies, and sent the Lord Chamberlain for me 
to go to her. She raised me with a great show of 
pleasure, and said that her ardent wish to see me 
had caused her to give me this trouble, and that 



3 i4 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

I was to forget that the Queen was there, and look 
upon her as a private lady, the preparations not 
being hers but those of a friend and subject, although 
the house was well prepared and her nobles were 
round her. I answered that wherever monarchs 
were there was their regal state, as I perceived in 
this case. We then went up into a very large gallery, 
where she took me aside for nearly an hour, all 
her talk being about your Majesty, and on several 
occasions during the conversation she recalled events 
that had occurred when she had first come to the 
throne, telling them so minutely that I will not tire 
your Majesty by repeating them. She was so taken 
up with it that I think she was sorry when supper 
was announced. Speaking of France, she said that 
she had received a letter written in Lyons, from the 
Queen, brought by her (the French) Ambassador 
that morning, who had arrived at dinner-time, and 
had had to wait. This was, I think, to satisfy me that 
she had not asked him to dinner. We then went to 
supper, which was served with great ceremony, as 
is usual here, and every attention and honour was 
shown to me. She ordered her musicians to play 
the Battle of Pavia, which she assured me was the 
music she enjoyed most. After supper she stayed 
talking to me for some time, and as it was already 
late I thought it was time to leave her. I was about 
to take my leave when she told me not to go yet, as 
she wished me to see a comedy that was to be acted. 
She said she would go into her chamber for a short 
time, and in the meanwhile Lord Robert was to 
entertain me. 

Robert made me great offers of service, saying 
how bound he was to your Majesty, both on account 
of the favours you had done him, and because you 
had been his Sovereign. I thanked him as well as 
I could. 

The Queen came out to the hall, which was lit 
with many torches, where the comedy was repre- 
sented. I should not have understood much of it if 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 315 

the Queen had not interpreted, as she told me she 
would do. They generally deal with marriage in the 
comedies, and she turned to me and asked again 
about your Majesty, and whether the Prince (Don 
Carlos) had grown. I told her he had, and after 
thinking awhile she said, " Well, everyone disdains 
me ; I understand he is to be married to the Queen of 
Scots." I said, " Do not believe it your Majesty. 
His Highness has been so ill with constant fever and 
other maladies of late years, that it has been 
impossible to think of his marriage, but now that 
he is well again people talk of these matters without 
knowledge. It is no new thing for great princes to 
be the subjects of gossip." " So true is that," said 
the Queen, "that they said in London the other day 
that the King, my brother, was sending an Ambas- 
sador to treat of the marriage of the Prince with 
me!" 

The comedy ended, and then there was a masque of 
certain gentlemen who entered dressed in black and 
white, which the Queen told me were her colours, and 
after dancing awhile one of them approached and 
handed the Queen a sonnet in English, praising her. 
She told me what it said, and I expressed my pleasure 
at it. This ended the feast, and the Queen entered 
a gallery, where there was a very long table with 
every sort and kind of preserves and candied fruits 
that can be imagined, according to the English 
custom. It must have been two in the morning, 
and the Queen had to return to Westminster by 
water, although it was very windy. She sent me 
back to my lodgings accompanied by the same 
gentleman as had brought me, as I had come by 
land. 

The reference to Don Carlos discloses something of 
Elizabeth's anxiety lest Mary Stuart should become Philip's 
daughter-in-law. This was Mary's highest ambition, but 
Philip had now abandoned that idea. " As to the Queen of 
Scots," he wrote to Guzman in August, " I understand that 



316 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

Cardinal Lorraine has offered this marriage to the Emperor 
for the Archduke Charles, and for this and other sufficient 
reasons the proposal to marry the said Queen to my son 
Carlos must now be considered at an end." x With regard 
to Elizabeth and Dudley the new Ambassador was instructed 
to follow on the lines previously laid down for his predecessor. 
Lord Robert had already taken Guzman into his confidence, 
and was as ready as ever to sell his soul if Philip would 
support his suit to marry the Queen. " In case he assures 
you," wrote Philip, " that if he succeeds he will reduce the 
kingdom to our true, ancient Catholic religion, and obedience 
to the Pope, you may promise him that we will readily help 
and favour him, and with this aim and object you will keep 
as cordial and friendly with him as you can, although at the 
same time you must discover from him if he has any other 
engagements to support him and where and from whom he 
expects to obtain help besides from me." 2 

Perhaps it was with a view of using Darnley as a possible 
trail across the path of Mary's matrimonial plans that Eliza- 
beth had now temporarily restored her uncertain favour to 
Lady Margaret Lennox and her son. Both Lady Margaret and 
her husband had been released more than a year ago, when 
they had returned to Settrington, in Yorkshire, to set their 
long forsaken house in order. Elizabeth asked and obtained 
Mary's license for Lennox's return to Scotland in order to 
attend to his affairs there, and was then mean enough to 
request Mary in secret to stay his permit for a year, on the 
plea that his return would offend his own friends in Scotland. 
This piece of double-dealing failed of its purpose, and brought 
indignant letters on the subject from Mary and Lethington. 
To the Countess and Darnley Elizabeth showed high regard. 
We find them both at Court this summer with Darnley carry- 
ing the sword before her Majesty on State occasions, and Lady 
Margaret herself, on July 6, standing godmother with the 
Queen to Cecil's infant daughter Elizabeth. An additional 
honour was shown to Cecil in the following month of August 
when the Queen paid her visit to the University of Cambridge, 
of which he had been Chancellor since 1559. Her splendid 

1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 371. 

2 Ibid., pp. 371 — 2. 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 317 

entertainment, with its mixture of solemn orations, disputa- 
tions, and pagan plays, has been fully set forth in the 
" Progresses of Queen Elizabeth." Guzman furnishes a 
curious footnote to John Nichols's record : 

GUZMAN DE SILVA TO THE DUCHESS OF PARMA. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, August 19, 1564. 

When the Queen was at Cambridge they represented 
comedies and held scientific disputations, and an 
argument on religion, in which the man who defended 
Catholicism was attacked by those who presided, in 
order to avoid having to give him the prize. The 
Queen made a speech praising the acts and exercises, 
and they wished to give her another representation, 
which she refused, in order to be no longer delayed. 
Those who were so anxious for her to hear it, followed 
her to her first stopping-place, and so importuned her 
that at last she consented. The actors came in dressed 
as some of the imprisoned Bishops. First came the 
Bishop of London carrying a lamb in his hands, as if 
he were eating it as he walked along, and then others 
with different devices, one being in the figure of a dog 
with the Host in his mouth. They write that the Queen 
was so angry that she at once entered her chamber, 
using strong language, and the men who held the 
torches, it being night, left them in the dark, and so 
ended the thoughtless and scandalous representation. 

Guzman soon realised how matters stood between 
Elizabeth and Mary. On September 4 he wrote that 
instructions had been sent " to keep a sharp look-out on 
affairs in Scotland as, although the two Queens correspond 
and keep each other in play until one or the other of 
them shows her hand, they both go in fear and will give 
but short grace." 1 A dangerous coolness had sprung up 
between them because of the tone of Mary's letters on the 
subject of the recall of Lennox. Having taken into her 
service the returned James Melville — he had been her page 

1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 377. 



3 i8 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

in her childhood days in France — Mary sent him to London 
to smooth matters with Elizabeth. We have it on 
Melville's authority that she secretly charged him at the 
same time to deal with Darnley's mother, and " to purchase 
leave for him to pass to Scotland." The envoy arrived at 
the English Court early in October, and was soon asked 
anxiously by Dudley what the Queen of Scots thought of 
him, and of the proposed marriage. " Whereunto," writes 
Melville in his oft-quoted " Memoirs," " I answered very 
coldly, as I had been by my Queen commanded. Then he 
began to purge himself of so proud a pretence as to marry so 
great a Queen, declaring that he did not esteem himself 
worthy to wipe her shoes, and that the invitation of that 
proposition of marriage proceeded from Mr. Cecil, his 
secret enemy : ' For if I,' said he, ' should have appeared 
desirous of that marriage, I should have offended both the 
Queens, and lost their favour.' " Which only shows how 
difficult it is to arrive at the truth when almost everyone 
concerned was a pastmaster in the art of dissembling. Of 
Melville's interviews with the Queen he has himself left in his 
" Memoirs " the intimate account which students of the period 
must now know by heart. Even so, it is impossible to 
resist using part of it to complete this connecting link 
between the letters of Guzman de Silva : 

The old friendship being renewed, Elizabeth 
inquired if the Queen had sent any answer to the 
proposition of marriage made to her by Mr. 
Randolph. I answered, as I had been instructed, 
that my mistress thought little or nothing thereof, 
but attended the meeting of some commissioners 
upon the borders .... to confer and treat upon all 
such matters of greatest importance, as should be 
judged to concern the quiet of both countries, and 
the satisfaction of both their majesties' minds. 
Adding, " the Queen my mistress is minded, as I 
have said, to send for her part my Lord of Murray, 
and the Secretary Lethington, and expects your 
Majesty will send my Lord of Bedford and my 
Lord Robert Dudley." She answered, it appeared I 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 319 

made but small account of my Lord Robert, seeing 
I named the Earl of Bedford before him, but that 
erelong she would make him a far greater earl, and 
that I should see it done before my returning home. 
For she esteemed him as her brother and best 
friend, whom she would have herself married had she 
ever minded to have taken a husband. But being 
determined to end her life in virginity, she wished the 
Queen her sister might marry him, as meetest of all 
other with whom she could find in her heart to 
declare her second person. For being matched with 
him, it would remove out of her mind all fears and 
suspicions, to be offended by any usurpation before 
her death, being assured that he was so loving and 
trusty that he would never suffer any such thing to be 
attempted during her time. And that the Queen my 
mistress might have the higher esteem of him, I was 
required to stay till I should see him made Earl of 
Leicester and Baron of Denbigh ; which was done at 
Westminster with great solemnity, the Queen herself 
helping to put on his ceremonial (mantle), he sitting 
upon his knees before her with a great gravity. But 
she could not refrain from putting her hand in his 
neck, smilingly tickling him, the French ambassador 
and I standing by. Then she turned, asking me 
how I liked him ? I answered, that as he was a worthy 
servant, so he was happy, who had a princess who 
could discern and reward good service. " Yet," says 
she, "you like better of yonder long lad," pointing 
towards my Lord Darnley, who, as nearest prince of 
the blood, did bear the sword of honour that day 
before her. 

She appeared to be so affectionate to the Queen 
her good sister that she expressed a great desire to 
see her. And because their so much by her desired 
meeting could not so hastily be brought to pass, 
she appeared with great delight to look upon her 
Majesty's picture. She took me to her bed-chamber, 
and opened a little cabinet, wherein were divers little 
pictures wrapped within paper, and their names 



320 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

written with her own hand upon the papers. Upon 
the first that she took up was written " My lord's 
picture." I held the candle, and pressed to see that 
picture so named ; she appeared loath to let me see 
it, yet my importunity prevailed for a sight thereof, 
and I found it to be the Earl of Leicester's picture. 
I desired that I might have it to carry home to my 
Queen, which she refused, alleging that she had but 
that one picture of his. I said, " Your Majesty hath 
here the original," for I perceived him at the furthest 
part of the chamber, speaking with Secretary Cecil. 
Then she took out the Queen's picture, and kissed it, 
and I adventured to kiss her hand, for the great love 
evidenced therein to my mistress. She showed me 
also a fair ruby, as great as a tennis-ball ; I desired 
that she would send either it, or my Lord of 
Leicester's picture, as a token to my Queen. She 
said that if the Queen would follow her counsel, she 
would in process of time get all that she had ; that 
in the meantime she was resolved in a token to send 
her with me a fair diamond. It was at this time late 
after supper ; she appointed me to be with her the 
next morning by eight of the clock, at which time she 
used to walk in her garden. . . . 

At divers meetings we had divers purposes. The 
Queen my mistress had instructed me to leave matters 
of gravity sometimes, and cast in merry purposes, 
lest otherwise she should be wearied ; she being well 
informed of that Queen's natural temper. Therefore 
in declaring my observations of the customs of Dutch- 
land, Poland, and Italy, the buskins of the women 
were not forgot, and what country weed I thought 
best becoming gentlewomen. The Queen said she 
had clothes of every sort, which every day thereafter, 
so long as I was there, she changed. One day she 
had the English weed, another the French, and 
another the Italian, and so forth. She asked me, 
which of them became her best ? I answered, in my 
judgment the Italian dress ; which answer I found 
pleased her well, for she delighted to show her golden 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 321 

coloured hair, wearing a caul and bonnet as they do 
in Italy. Her hair was rather reddish than yellow, 
curled in appearance naturally. 

She desired to know of me what colour of hair was 
reputed best, and whether my Queen's hair or hers 
was best, and which of them two was fairest ? I 
answered, the fairness of them both was not their worst 
faults. But she was earnest with me to declare which 
of them I judged fairest ? I said, she was the fairest 
Queen in England, and mine in Scotland. Yet she 
appeared, earnest. I answered, they were both the 
fairest ladies in their countries ; that her Majesty was 
whiter, but my Queen was very lovely. She enquired 
which of them was of highest stature ? I said, " My 
Queen." "Then," saith she, "she is too high, for I 
myself am neither too high nor too low." Then she 
asked what exercises she used ? I answered that 
when I received my dispatch, the Queen was lately 
come from the Highland hunting. That when her 
more serious affairs permitted, she was taken up with 
reading of histories : that sometimes she recreated 
herself in playing upon the lute and virginals. She 
asked if she played well ? I said, " Reasonably, for a 
Queen." 

That same day after dinner, my Lord of Hunsdon 
drew me up to a quiet gallery that I might hear some 
music, but he said he durst not avow it, where I 
might hear the Queen play upon the virginals. After 
I had harkened awhile, standing by the tapestry that 
hung before the door of the chamber, and seeing her 
back was toward the door, I ventured within the 
chamber, and stood a pretty space hearing her play 
excellently well ; but she left oft immediately, so soon 
as she turned about and saw me. She appeared to be 
surprised to see me, and came forward, seeming to 
strike me with her hand, alleging that she used not to 
play before men, but when she was solitary, to shun 
melancholy. She asked how I came there ? I 
answered, as I was walking with my Lord of Huns- 
don, as we passed by the chamber door, I heard such 

E.M.S. y 



322 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

melody as ravished me, whereby I was drawn in ere I 
knew how, excusing my fault of homeliness, as being 
brought up in the Court of France, where such free- 
dom was allowed ; declaring myself willing to endure 
what kind of punishment her Majesty should be pleased 
to inflict upon me, for so great an offence. Then she 
sat down low upon a cushion, and I upon my knees 
by her, but with her own hand she gave me a cushion 
to lay under my knee, which at first I refused, but 
she compelled me to take it. She then called for my 
Lady Stafford out of the next chamber, for the Queen 
was alone. She enquired whether my Queen or she 
played best ? In that I found myself obliged to give 
her the praise. She said my French was very good, 
and asked if I could speak Italian, which she spoke 
reasonably well. I told her Majesty I had no time to 
learn the language, not having been above two months 
in Italy. Then she spake to me in Dutch, which was 
not good ; and would know what kind of books I 
most delighted in. whether theology, history, or love 
matters ? I said I liked well of all the sorts. Here I 
took occasion to press earnestly my dispatch : she 
said I was sooner weary of her company than she was 
of mine. I told her Majesty that though I had no 
reason of being weary, I knew my mistress's affairs 
called me home. Yet I was stayed two days longer, 
that I might see her dance, as I was afterward 
informed. Which being over, she enquired of me 
whether she or my Queen danced best ? I answered, 
the Queen danced not so highly or disposedly as she 
did. Then again she wished that she might see the 
Queen at some convenient place of meeting. I offered 
to convey her secretly to Scotland by post, cloathed 
like a page, that under this disguise she might see 
the Queen, as James V. had gone in disguise with his 
own ambassador to see the Duke of Vendome's sister, 
who should have been his wife ; telling her that her 
chamber might be kept in her absence, as though she 
were sick ; that none need be privy thereto except 
Lady Stafford, and one of the grooms of her chamber. 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 323 

She appeared to like that kind of language, only 
answering it with a sigh, saying, " Alas, if I might do 
it thus ! " 

Guzman now resumes the narrative with a delightful 
instance of the manner in which the maiden Queen loved to 
try her blandishments on the new Ambassador : 

GUZMAN DE SILVA TO THE DUCHESS OF PARMA. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, September 23, 1564. 

As your Highness knows, the Marchioness of 
Northampton x is a great favourite of the Queen, and 
I am gaining the goodwill of her intimates, so as to 
gain more influence over her mistress. She is a 
person of great understanding, and is so much esteemed 
by the Queen that some little friction exists between 
her and Robert. I understand, however, that she 
bears herself towards him in a way that, together 
with other things that can be better imagined 
than described, makes me doubt sometimes whether 
Robert's position is so irregular as many think. It is 
nothing for princes to hear evil, even without giving 
any cause for it. 

Before the Queen came back I went to visit the 
Marchioness of Northampton, and when I was taking 
my leave she said she had something important to 
say to me, which she must defer to another day, and 
in consequence of the return here of the Queen, I did 
not go again for six or seven days, when on the 
15th instant I sent to ask after the Marchioness' 
indisposition, and if I could visit her that afternoon. 
She sent to say that she should be delighted, and I 
went by water to Westminster, where she lives, and 
there found the Queen, who had gone over from St. 

1 The Marchioness was a daughter of Lord Cobham, and had been 
married in her early youth to William Parr, Marquess of North- 
ampton, brother of Queen Catherine Parr. A doubtfully legal 
divorce had been previously obtained by him from his former wife, 
and his second marriage had been declared invalid in the reign of 
Mary. Elizabeth had recognised it, but was quite ready to throw 
the matter in his teeth when angry. — Hume. 

Y 2 



324 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

James's to dine with her almost alone, and was there 
when I had sent word, as I afterwards found out. 
They played me this trick between them, and kept 
the secret until I was in the Queen's presence, and 
then laughed greatly at it. I was there until almost 
night, the Marchioness on her couch, and the Queen 
near her. What passed were mostly tales told by the 
Queen and ordinary conversation, into which she was 
constantly slipping some slight allusions to marriage. 
I told her she was wrong to keep the world in 
suspense, and ought to decide. She laughed and 
said she had something to say to me about our 
business, and on her return at nightfall to St. James's 
through the park she went on foot, although she had 
a carriage waiting, and took me part of the way with 
her. On the way she said that a fool who was about 
there had advised her never to marry a German, as 
they were bad men. She spoke about nothing else, 
and made me turn back, so that I might return by 
water, as I had come. 

I learn on good authority that Lord Robert has 
no chance, and the talk is now all about the Arch- 
duke. The Queen has even said something about 
visiting the Emperor. 

After Melville's visit Guzman learnt that Elizabeth had 
told that Ambassador among other things, " that she was 
not so old yet that they need continually keep her death before 
her eyes by talking about the succession " ; but that Par- 
liament should deal with the question when it sat. 1 Elizabeth 
now sought to convince Guzman himself that in spite of 
her outward Protestantism she was a Catholic at heart — 
" but not so clearly as I could have wished," he added 
in mentioning this incident : 

GUZMAN DE SILVA TO PHILIP II. 
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

October g, 1564. 
As I have advised, Cecil's favour has been 
wavering, but he knows how to please, and avoids 
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 387. 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 325 

saying things the Queen does not wish to hear, and 
above all, as I am told, can flatter her, so he has 
kept his place, and things are in the same position 
as formerly. Robert makes the best of it. The 
outward demonstrations are fair, but the inner 
feelings the same as before. I do not know how 
long they will last. They dissemble, but Cecil has 
more wit than all of them. Their envy of him is 
very great. This Queen, referring no doubt to the 
beginning of her reign, told me that she had had to 
conceal her real feelings to prevail with her subjects 
in matters of religion, but that God knew her heart, 
which was true to His service. She said other things 
to give me to understand that she was right in spirit, 
but not so clearly as I could have wished. There 
was no good opportunity of carrying this coversation 
further. 

I told her, as I am sure she knew, that her preachers 
spoke ill of her because she had a cross on the altar 
of her chapel, and that they did in this a daring 
disrespect to her person. She signified that she 
should order crosses to be put into the churches, and 
that some of the newly rebuilt ones have stone 
crosses, not inside but on the towers. She said also, 
" They charge me with a good many things, in my 
own country and elsewhere, and, among others, that 
I show more favour to Robert than is fitting ; 
speaking of me as they might speak of an immodest 
woman. I am not surprised that the occasion for it 
should have been given by a young woman and 
young man of good qualities, to whose merits and 
goodness I have shown favour, although not so 
much as he deserves, but God knows how great a 
slander it is, and a time will come when the world 
will know it. My life is in the open, and I have so 
many witnesses that I cannot understand how so 
bad a judgment can have been formed of me." 

She afterwards spoke of the Queen of Scotland, 
praising her beauty, and went on to say that she had 
heard that she was going to marry our Prince. 



326 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

I laughed, and said that I was told it was more 
likely to be the King of France. She said no, that 
was not so, because the Queen of France and Scot- 
land were on bad terms respecting a certain affair, 
and the French had approached her (Elizabeth) with 
a view to her marrying their King, assuring her that 
she could do it better, and that it was a more suitable 
marriage than that which your Majesty contracted 
with her sister. She, however, had laughed at it, 
and treated it as a thing not to be spoken of 
considering their ages. 

Surprising though this last statement undoubtedly was, it 
was perfectly true. The matter had first been mooted by 
the Prince of Conde months before, during the peace 
negotiations in Paris, but Sir Thomas Smith had dismissed 
the idea as impossible. Now, however, the scheme had 
been taken up by Catherine de Medici, who, seeing in it 
some hope of strengthening her position against the increas- 
ing strength of the Catholic and Spanish combination, opened 
negotiations through her Ambassador, Michael Castelnau, 
Seigneur de Mauvissiere. Charles IX. at that time was 
only about sixteen, but had recently been declared by the 
States of France to have attained his majority, although his 
mother continued to govern in his name. Elizabeth assured 
Castelnau that " She was greatly obliged for the signal 
honour that was done her by so mighty and powerful a King, 
to whom, as well as to the Queen, his mother, she professed 
herself infinitely beholden, but that she felt this difficulty : 
the most Christian King, her good brother, was too great 
and too small — too great, as a monarch of such a realm, to 
be able to quit his own dominions to cross the sea and 
remain in England, where the people always expected their 
Kings and Queens to live ; too small," she explained by saying, 
" that his Majesty was young, and she was already thirty, 
which she called old." 1 The matter, as will be seen, was not 
allowed to stay there, Catherine making a fresh attempt in 
the following year by means of her resident Ambassador, 
Paul de Foix. 

1 Strickland's "Lives of the Queens of England." 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 327 

Mary's matrimonial prospects, meanwhile, showed little 
signs of improvement. The Leicester match was kept 
dangling before her eyes, with a profusion of promises on 
Elizabeth's part, but no proper security for their fulfilment. 
On the other hand Elizabeth had made it sufficiently clear 
that any foreign alliance would at once lead to her open 
enmity, and Mary may have already known — what she 
certainly learned before the year was out — that Don Carlos, 
whom she would have preferred above all others, was no 
longer a possible suitor. There was Lord Darnley, of 
course, but it is doubtful whether she realised how inevitably 
she was moving towards the irretrievable tragedy of that 
alternative match when she restored to his father, the Earl 
of Lennox, his long-forfeited estates in Scotland. Lennox 
and the Countess were at first — this was in August — granted 
permission by Elizabeth to take Darnley with them on that 
occasion, but Elizabeth grew suspicious, and would only 
allow Lennox to go alone. Mary refers to his reinstatement 
in her secret letter to the Archbishop of Glasgow, who had 
retired to Paris on the death of the Queen Regent, and 
remained there as Scottish Ambassador until his death : 

THE QUEEN OF SCOTS TO ARCHBISHOP BEATON. 
[Strickland's "Letters of Mary Queen of Scots."} 

Edinburgh, November 2, 1564. 

Monsieur de Glasgow, 

The bearer of this has begged so earnestly to be 
taken into my service, that, without considering his 
youth, as I had before done, I would not let him set 
out without this short letter, in which I shall not give 
you much news, referring to that which I have 
commanded him to say relative to the appointments of 
the Duke of Chatelherault and of the Earl of Lennox. 
. . . also about the return of Melville, whom I sent 
to the Queen, my good sister, with an apology for 
some letters which I had written to her, and which 
she considered rather rude ; but she took the inter- 
pretation which he put upon them in good part, and 
has since sent to me Randolph, who is here at 
present, and has brought me some very kind and 



328 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

polite letters, written by her own hand, containing 
fair words, and some complaints that the Queen * and 
her ambassador .... had assured her that I had 
published in mockery proposals which she had made 
me to marry Lord Robert. I cannot imagine that 
any of those over there could wish to embroil me so 
much with her, since I have neither spoken to any 
body, not written respecting this proposal, not even 
to the Queen, who, I am sure, would not have borne 
such testimony against me ; but I have thought of 
writing about it to M. de Foix and to Baptiste. In 
the mean time, if you hear any thing, talk to him on 
his return from England ; let me know, but do not 
mention a word about what I am writing to you to 
any one whatever. 

For the rest, I shall hold the Parliament on the 5th 
of next month, for the sole purpose of reinstating the 
Earl of Lennox in his possessions, and afterwards I 
shall not fail to dispatch to you a gentleman, who will 
acquaint you with all that has occurred more at 
length than I can inform you at present. 

Your very kind mistress and friend, 

Mary R. 

Lennox's restitution was proclaimed at the market cross 
in Edinburgh not long after this letter was written, before 
the meeting of Parliament. The Earl had already repeated 
his request to Elizabeth for Darnley's presence on his 
estates — with the following result : 

GUZMAN DE SILVA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

October 9, 1564. 

. . . Nothing fresh has been heard from Scotland 
since the Queen restored his estates to Lord Lennox. 
He has written to this Queen informing her that, as 
his relatives and lawyers are of opinion that the 
presence of his son is necessary for the preservation 

1 Catherine de' Medici. 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 329 

of these estates, he begs her to give him leave to 
come and take joint possession with him. The 
Queen replied to Lady Margaret, congratulating her 
on the restoration of her husband's estate, and said 
she would be pleased to give her son the license 
requested. This was repeated to her also by Cecil and 
Leicester, but, after the license was granted the next 
day, the Queen said to Margaret that she was very 
vexed and offended at her husband for having asked 
for the license for the son with all this caution, saying 
that his lawyers had advised him that his son's 
presence was necessary to take possession of the 
estate, when such was not the fact. For this reason 
she had decided not to give him leave to go, as she 
would have done willingly if she had been asked in a 
straightforward way. Margaret explained the matter 
in such a way that the Queen again said she would 
give the license, and would answer her husband's 
letter. Notwithstanding all this it has been decided 
not to give the license. 

This is the way with everything — absolutely no 
certainty. This Lennox, Margaret and her son, are 
Catholics, and profess attachment to your Majesty. 
I do what is requisite to entertain them, although 
with great caution and secrecy. As Margaret is one 
of the claimants to the succession, and a Catholic, 
the Queen and her Ministers attach a great deal of 
importance to her, and are so suspicious, so excited 
and so anxious, that Margaret says they conduct 
themselves as if they were frantic, and certainly she 
is not far wrong. 

Elizabeth now turned her attention to Mary's possible 
marriage with the Archduke Charles, affecting to believe that 
negotiations were in progress with that end in view. The 
familiar farce was accordingly revived of discussing with the 
Spanish Ambassador Elizabeth's own prospects in the same 
direction. Guzman realised the likelihood of deception, but 
was willing to write to Philip for instructions. " Although 
these people are false generally," he told him, "they may 



330 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

not be so in this case." * That was all that Elizabeth wanted 
— to keep Philip on tenterhooks again, pointing out that the 
alternative was still open to her of marrying the young King 
of France. In December Elizabeth agreed to the meeting at 
Berwick between Randolph and Bedford on the one hand, 
and Lord James (now Earl of Murray) and Lethington on 
the other, with the object, if possible, of providing Mary with 
an English husband. Guzman declares that Elizabeth now 
offered Mary the choice of three : 

At Berwick on the Scottish frontier the Earl of 
Bedford, who is at present general there, and the 
Ambassador who recently left here for Scotland, 
Randolph by name, have had a meeting with Lord 
James, the Queen of Scotland's brother, and Secretary 
Lethington, on behalf of the respective Queens. They 
say the discussion has been about the marriage of 
the Scottish Queen, and that a proposal has been 
made to her by this Queen that she should choose 
between the following three Englishmen — the Earl of 
Leicester, the Duke of Norfolk, and the son of Lady 
Margaret Lennox, and in the event of her marrying 
either of them she will declare her heiress to the 
crown. It is said that the conclusion arrived at by 
the Queen of Scotland was that she was willing to 
marry an Englishman if the succession was declared, 
but not the Earl of Leicester, although she said 
nothing of the other two. It is also asserted that 
Lethington will soon be here to arrange this and 
other business. I am informed that the Queen of 
Scotland has written to this Queen asking her still 
to give leave for Lady Margaret's son to come to his 
father in Scotland. I am also told that the French 
are endeavouring to arrange a marriage for the Queen 
of Scotland in France, and have offered her several 
persons of that country. How these negotiations will 
end it is impossible to predict. 2 

Cecil was evidently as much in the dark on this point as 

1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 395. 

2 Ibid., p. 399. 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 331 

was the Spanish Ambassador, and saw the happiest issue out 
of all his afflictions in a suitable marriage for his own fickle 
mistress. In the following letter he does not mention the 
Duke of Norfolk as being among the candidates for Mary's 
hand at the Berwick meeting, Darnley and Leicester 
apparently having the field to themselves : 

SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO SIR THOMAS SMITH. 
[Wright's " Queen Elizabeth and her Times."] 

December 30, 1564. 

. . . The Earl of Lennox's friends wish that the 
Lord of Darnley might marry with the Scottish 
Queen, and I see some device to bring the Queen's 
Majesty not only to allow thereof, but also to move it 
to the Queen her sister. But I see no disposition 
thereto in her Majesty, but she rather continueth 
her desire to have my Lord of Leicester preferred 
that way, for which purpose there was this last 
month a meeting at Berwick with my Lord of 
Murray and the Lord of Lethington, but yet covered 
with some other matters. And now of late it is from 
thence renewed, to know with what conditions the 
Queen's Majesty will prefer him, wherein at this 
present no full answer is yet given ; but to say the 
truth of my knowledge in these fickle matters, I can 
affirm nothing that I can assure to continue. I see 
the Queen's Majesty very desirous to have my Lord 
of Leicester placed in this high degree to be the 
Scottish Queen's husband ; but when it cometh to 
the conditions which are demanded, I see her then 
remiss of her earnestness. 

This also I see in the Queen's Majesty, a sufficient 
content to be moved to marry abroad, and if it so 
may please Almighty God to lead by the hand some 
meet person to come and lay hand on her to her 
content, I could then wish myself more health to 
endure my years somewhat longer to enjoy such 
a world here as I trust will follow ; otherwise I assure 
you, as now things hang in desperation, I have no 
comfort to live. . . . 



332 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

The new year dawned with a frost so intense that the 
Thames was completely frozen over, "and people walk 
upon it," wrote the Spanish Ambassador, " as they do the 
streets. Natives say they have never seen such a thing 
before, and it is very trying for the weak. It has found out 
the Queen, whose constitution cannot be very strong." 1 
Elizabeth had been ill with a feverish cold, and was unable 
to see the Ambassador since Christmas Eve. Leicester 
told him that her illness had made her very thin. A second 
letter from Guzman to the King on the same day is interesting 
as showing how Leicester and Cecil impressed the new 
diplomatist from the Spanish Court : 

GUZMAN DE SILVA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, January 2, 1565. 

Although I have written that this Queen has been 
ill with catarrh, she has also had an attack of the 
pains in the head to which she is subject. They 
inform me that the physicians who attend her con- 
sider her constitution a weak and unhealthy one. 
It is true young people can get over anything, but 
your Majesty should note that she is not considered 
likely to have a long life. 

The Earl of Leicester is still in favour. He shows 
the same goodwill towards your Majesty's interests. 
I believe he desires to please everybody, as he seems 
well disposed, and has no inclination to do harm. 
The French Ambassador cultivates his friendship 
both in obedience to instructions from the King, and 
because Leicester's father was attached to the French, 
and he also has a liking for them, although if he tells 
the truth his affection for and desire to serve your 
Majesty are much stronger. He was considered 
here more Catholic than Protestant, but recently he 
has done two things that make some people think 
he is not so. First, the Queen having ordered 
the image to be placed in her chapel, he had it 

1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 401. 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 333 

removed ; and next, when the men they call ministers 
and ecclesiastics here were ordered to wear a proper 
dress, in accordance with the ancient custom of the 
country, and to put on a surplice during the service, 
the ministers complained to him saying that they 
wished to make Papists of them, and by his help the 
order has been dropped, as have some other measures 
of amendment. The Queen, as usual, has a cross 
upon the altar. If what some people say is to be 
believed she is not comfortable with her Protestants, 
nor with the doctrines of the other side either, and, 
in the meanwhile, provides no amendment, and gives 
ground for the assertion that she is an atheist, and 
Leicester as well. I ought not presume to judge thus 
freely. . . . 

When I first arrived here I had imagined Secretary 
Cecil, judging by the accounts given me, to be very 
different from what I have found him in your Majesty's 
affairs. He is well disposed towards them, truthful, 
lucid, modest and just, and, although he is zealous in 
serving his Queen, which is one of his best traits, yet 
he is amenable to reason. He knows the French and, 
like an Englishman, is their enemy. He assures me 
on his oath, as I have already said, that the French 
have always made great efforts to attract to their 
country the Flanders trade, offering heavy security 
for its safety. With regard to his religion I say 
nothing except that I wish he were a Catholic, but 
to his credit must be placed the fact that he is 
straightforward in affairs, and shows himself well 
affected towards your Majesty, for which I thank 
him, and, with fair words that pledge me to nothing, 
I let him know that your Majesty looks to him to 
dispose matters favourably as necessity may occur, 
for he alone it is who makes or mars business here. 

Guzman was soon involved in the plot which ended in 
Mary's disastrous marriage in the ensuing summer. Any 
attempt to steer a clear, incontrovertible course through the 
labyrinth of documents in which the truth lies hidden 



334 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

concerning the means by which this match was brought 
about, is foredoomed to failure. All that I can hope to do 
is to select the essential documents illustrating what seems 
to me the most plausible theory on the subject, in the light 
of some newly-discovered letters, as well as of those already 
printed. From these documents it seems clear that however 
much Mary may have disliked the idea of marrying Leicester 
when it was first mooted, she was afterwards sincere when 
she expressed her readiness to accept him if Elizabeth would 
but recognise her claims to the English succession. When 
she made her definite promise to Randolph to that effect 
Darnley, according to this theory, was being despatched 
from the English Court for the express purpose of undoing 
her unwelcome acquiescence. The opposite view is that 
Mary never meant to marry Leicester, and only promised 
to do so in order to disarm Elizabeth's suspicions regarding 
Darnley. 

The English Ambassador had already urged repeatedly that 
it only needed Leicester's arrival to complete what he fondly 
believed to be Elizabeth's magnanimous sacrifice, telling 
Leicester himself " wherein I thought him overslow and 
careless for his own weal and the profit of his country. " 1 
More was thought of Darnley, he wrote to Cecil in an 
earlier letter (Dec. 14) before his father's coming than at 
present. " The father is now here well known ; the mother 
more feared than beloved of any that knew her " ; and 
Randolph bitterly complained that little was done on the 
English side to conclude matters. Murray and Lethington 
had both agreed that " the English amity is fittest, and no 
man more acceptable than shall be Lord Robert." " The 
stay is now," Randolph shrewdly guessed in the same letter, 
" either in the Queen's Majesty to have all performed, or in 
his Lordship's self, that hath the matter so well framed in his 
hand, that much more I believe there need not be than his 
own consent." 2 

But Dudley had no desire to exchange his brilliant 
prospects at Elizabeth's Court for the risk of sudden death 
after the orthodox Scottish manner as husband of the 

1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. II., p. 114. 

2 Ibid., p. 98. 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 335 

Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth, as Cecil shows by his letter 
to Smith of December 30 was "remiss of her earnestness " 
when she came to discuss the conditions demanded. The 
length to which she was prepared to go in order to keep 
Leicester about her own person may be judged by her 
im^-^sible suggestion that if Mary would marry him, and be 
content to live with her, she would gladly bear the charges 
of both households. 1 According to an incomplete statement 
by Mary after her marriage with Darnley— much stained, 
defaced, and undated, but placed in the Scottish Calendar 
under the date of October 1565 — Leicester himself had 
written to her, secretly through Randolph — to the effect that 
Elizabeth's object in offering his hand was only to deceive 
her, and put off other suitors. Leicester was quite capable 
of betraying his mistress in this fashion, but if such letters 
were ever received by Mary they must have been written 
after Darnley's arrival, and the contents kept from 
Randolph, through whose hands she declares they passed. 
That she was anxious to bring matters to a head at the 
beginning of the year by feigning secret negotiations of 
great importance in France is obvious from her next letter 
to her Ambassador in Paris : 

MARY STUART TO ARCHBISHOP BEATON. 
[Strickland's " Letters of Mary Queen of Scots.'"] 

January 28, 1565. 

Monsieur de Glasgow, 

I send the bearer more for a blind than for any 
matter of importance — expressly to set people guess- 
ing what it can be about. Pretend to be greatly 
annoyed by the delay of this letter, and, if possible, 
cause the English ambassador to suppose that it 
relates to something of great consequence. Lose no 
time in going to the Queen and soliciting an audience; 
and, under the cloak of my pension, about which you 
will talk to her, invent some subjects that will occupy 
her attention for a considerable time, purposely to 
make them imagine that this dispatch contains 
something very important .... will give you intel- 

1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. II., p. 81. 



336 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

ligence concerning my affairs : you will know to 
what account this information may be turned ; and 
next day speak to her again if you can, and write to M. 
the Cardinal [of Lorraine] as if in great haste ; but take 
no notice of any thing beyond forwarding my letters, 
so that he may receive news of me, and send me, as 
soon as you possibly can, one of your people with all 
the news you are able to obtain. I pray God to 
have you in his holy keeping. 

Your very good mistress and friend, 

Mary R. 

Mary followed this up with warnings to Randolph of the 
danger of prolonging all the uncertainty between their two 
Majesties, giving him at the same time a definite assurance 
of her own readiness to marry Leicester : 

SIR THOMAS RANDOLPH TO QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
{Scottish Calendar, Vol. II.] 

Edinburgh, February 5, 1565. 

Immediately after the receipt of your letter to this 
Queen, I repaired to St. Andrews, and when time 
served I presented the same, which being read and 
apparently very well liked, she said little to me for 
that time. Next day she passed wholly in mirth, nor 
gave any appearance to any of the contrary ; nor 
would not, as she said openly, but be quiet and 
merry. Her Grace lodged in a merchant's house, 
her train very few, and small repair from any part. 
Her will was that I should dine and sup with her, 
and your Majesty was oftentimes drunken unto by 
her. Having thus spent Sunday, Monday and 
Tuesday, I thought it time to utter to her Grace 
your Majesty's last command by Mr. Secretary's 
letters — viz., to know her resolution touching the 
matters propounded at Berwick by my Lord of 
Bedford and me to my Lord of Murray and 
Lethington. 

I had no sooner spoken these words but she said : 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 337 

" I see now well that you are weary of this company 
and treatment. I sent for you to be merry, and to 
see how like a bourgeois wife I live with my little 
troop, and you will interrupt our pastimes with your 
great and grave matters. I pray you, Sir, if you be 
weary here, return home to Edinburgh, and keep 
your gravity and great embassy until the Queen come 
hither, for I assure you you shall not get her here, 
nor I know not myself where she is become. You 
see neither cloth of estate, nor such appearance that 
you may think that there is a Queen here, nor I 
would not that you should think that I am she at St. 
Andrews that I was at Edinburgh." 

I said I was very sorry, for at Edinburgh she said 
she loved my Sovereign better than any other, and 
now I marvelled how her mind was altered ! Hereat 
it pleased her to be very merry, and called me by 
more names than were given me in my Christendom ! 
At these merry conceits much good sport was made. 

" But well, Sir," said she, " that which I then 
spoke in words shall be confirmed to my good sister 
your mistress in writing. Before you go out of this 
town, you shall have a letter unto her, and for your- 
self go where you will, I care no more for you." 
Next I was placed at my ordinary table the next per- 
son (saving worthy Beaton) to the Queen's self ; very 
merrily she passeth her time. After dinner, riding 
abroad, she talked most of the time with me of France, 
and the honour she received there to be the wife unto a 
great king, and the friendship to her from many, where- 
fore she is bound to love the nation and continue the 
friendship sought of her, for the maintenance of 
many of her people there, the service of the Guard 
and men at arms, besides privileges to her merchants 
beyond any nation. " What privately of long time 
hath been sought, and yet is, for myself to yield unto 
their desires in my marriage, your mistress cannot be 
ignorant, and you have heard. To leave such friends, 
and to lose such offers, without assurance of as good, 
nobody will give me advice that loveth me. Not to 

e.m.s. z 



338 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

marry, you know it cannot be for me : to defer it long, 
many incommodities ensue. How privy to my mind 
your mistress hath been herein, to know how willing 
I am to follow her advice, I have showed many times, 
and yet can I find in her no resolution nor determina- 
tion. For nothing, I cannot be bound unto her, and 
to frame my will against hers, I have of late given 
assurance to my brother of Murray and Lethington, 
that I am loath, and so do now show unto yourself, 
which I will you to bear in mind, and to let it be 
known to my sister your mistress. And therefore this 
I say, and trust me I mean it, if your mistress will as 
she hath said, use me as her natural born sister, or 
daughter, I will take myself either as the one or the 
other, as she please, and will show no less readiness 
to obey her and honour her than my mother or eldest 
sister; but if she will repute me always but as her neigh- 
bour, Queen of Scots, how willing soever I be to live in 
amity, and to maintain peace, yet must she not look 
for that at my hands that otherwise I would, or she 
desireth. To forsake friendship offered, and present 
commodity for uncertainty, no friend will advise me, 
nor your mistress's self approve my wisdom. Let her 
therefore measure my case as her own, and so will I be 
hers. For these causes until my sister and I have 
farther proceeded, I must apply my mind to the 
advice of those that seem to tender most my profit, 
that show their care over me, and wish me most good. 
I have now disclosed unto you all my mind, and 
require you to let it be known to your Sovereign. My 
meaning unto her is plain, and so shall my dealing be. 
I know how well she is worthy, and so do esteem her, 
and therefore I will thus much say more, that as 
there is none nearer of kin unto her than I am, nor 
none more worthy to whom I may submit myself, so 
is there none to whom with better will I desire to be 
beholden unto than unto her, or to do anything that 
may be with my honour." 

To this long discourse I did not much reply, but as 
to her affection for France, I was bold to say, what- 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 339 

soever her Grace had found herself, her country hath 
felt the smart. I approved greatly her good words 
of your Majesty and by many tokens showed 
your Grace's like mind towards her. The matters 
you stood on were so great, they could not soon 
be resolved of, and it were much better to wait 
a time than over hastily to press at them, and rather 
to let them come of themselves than to seem to wring 
them out by force. "When," she said, " heard you 
me speak of these matters before ? " I said no, of her- 
self, but her ministers bore always her mind, and in 
their words uttered that which she would. " I gave 
unto them charge," said she " to consider what is 
fittest for me, and I find them altogether bent towards 
you, and yet not so but I believe they will advise me 
for the best. But so your mistress may use me that 
I will leave their advice, and all others, and follow 
hers alone." I liked these words so well that I 
wished it might be so to both their contents. 

" Remember," said she, " what I have said ; this 
mind that now I am of cometh not upon the sudden ; 
it is more than a day or two that I have had this 
thought, and more than this too that you shall not 
know." I desired her not to cut off her talk there, it 
was so good, wise, well framed and comfortable to 
me, to hear her mind to your Majesty. " I am a 
fool,'' said she, " thus long to talk with you ; you are 
too subtle for me to deal with." I protested that my 
meaning was but to nourish perpetual amity between 
you and her only by honest means. " How much 
better were it," said she, " that we two being Queens 
so near of kin, neighbours and living in one isle, 
should be friends and live together like sisters, than 
by strange means divide ourselves to the hurt of us 
both ! and to say that we may for all that live friends, 
we may say and promise what we will, but it will pass 
both our powers ! You repute us poor, but yet you 
have found us cumbersome enough ! We have had 
loss, ye have taken hurt ! Why may it not be 
between my sister and me, that we living in peace 

z 2 



340 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

and assured friendship may give our minds that some 
as notable things may be wrought by us women, as 
by our predecessors have been before ? Let us seek 
this honour against some other, than fall at debate 
amongst ourselves." 

I asked her Grace whether she would be content 
some day, whenever it were, to give her assistance for 
the recovery of Calais ? At this she laughed and 
said : " Many things must pass between my good 
sister and me before I can give answer, but I 
believe to see the day that all our quarrels shall be 
one, and assure you, if we be not, the fault shall not 
be in me." Such is the effect of much long talk 
between this Queen and me, not so well answered by 
me as spoken by her. I commended her opinion of 
your Majesty, and so ended with her that no small 
matter shall make her think otherwise, or over hasty 
to enter into league with any, or match herself in 
marriage, farther than either drift of time should be 
found in your Majesty, or hasty request of her sub- 
jects, or necessity to provide for her estate did press 
her. I requested her humbly, inasmuch as I had 
moved her by your command, to let her mind be 
known how she liked the suit for my Lord of Leicester, 
that I might be able to say or write somewhat thereon 
to your Majesty. " My mind towards him is such as 
it ought to be of a very noble man, as I hear say by 
very many ; and such one as the Queen your mistress, 
my good sister, doth so well like to be her husband if 
he were not her subject, ought not to mislike me to be 
mine. Marry ! what I shall do, it lieth in your mis- 
tress's will, who shall wholly guide me and rule me." 
I made as if I did not well understand her words, that 
I might have the better hold of them — so she repeated 
the self-same words again. And I, showing myself 
fully contented, desired her Grace I might hastily 
return to your Majesty while they were fresh in 
memory. 

" My mind is not that you shall so hastily depart : 
at Edinburgh we may come on farther ; there shall 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 341 

be nothing forgotten, or called back, that hath been 
said. I have received," said she, " a very loving 
letter from my good sister, and this night or to-morrow 
will write another, which you must send away." Of 
the whole conference I made a rehearsal to Murray 
and Lethington, who were glad I had heard so much 
spoken of herself, but without that principal point 
whereon your Majesty stays they neither dare, nor 
are willing of themselves, earnestly to press her, for 
they see not otherwise how in honour she can accord 
to your Majesty's advice, nor so to bind herself unto 
you as they are sure she will — and therein offer their 
service to you to their uttermost. Lethington doubts 
your Majesty has an evil opinion of him, though I 
assure him to the contrary, and find his dealing 
hitherto honest. But in these great matters, however 
ready to obey your Majesty's will, I am in continual 
fear of my lacks, and would humbly crave that some 
man of ripe experience and judgment out of your 
many councillors, be sent here to bring them to a 
successful issue: 

To Leicester himself Randolph wrote on the following 
day to the same effect, apologising also for having previously 
written too plainly to the Earl on neglecting his golden 
opportunity in Scotland. " I so much overshot myself and 
your Honour in my last letters," he had also written to Cecil 
on January 13, " that I repent they escaped my hand " : 

THOMAS RANDOLPH TO THE EARL OF LEICESTER. 
[Wright's " Queen Elizabeth and her Times.'"] 

February 6, 1565. 

I have the longer forborne to write unto your 
Lordship, for fear lest my last letters deserved so 
little thanks that your Lordship careth not how few 
come into your hands. Whatsoever is contained in 
my writings, my mind was never to offend, and if 
I knew which way to sort to your Lordship's con- 
tentment, with the desire I have that this suit I have 
here took effect, your Lordship should ever be void 



342 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

of suspicion of my good will. That matter which 
I have in hand, I am assured, if it take effect, shall 
turn your Lordship to the greatest honour that you 
can be called unto, except you marry with the Queen's 
Majesty. What profit and commodity shall ensue 
unto your country, the wisest and best experienced 
have already given their judgment, that there can 
be no greater. The Queen's Majesty's contentment 
herein I am sure will be such, as this being ended, 
her great care is past. Because your Lordship 
therefore shall not be ignorant to what pass matters 
are come unto here, that your Lordship may the 
sooner, in debating with yourself, resolve upon that 
which is found for you to be best, it may please 
your Lordship to understand that this Queen is 
now content to give good care unto the Queen's 
Majesty's suit in your behalf. By reports she hath 
heard so much good of your Lordship that she 
judgeth you worthy of any place of honour, yea, to 
be husband to any Queen : she wisheth you also 
a kingdom of your own, the sooner to come by that 
which others think you worthy of. Wherefore, 
towards yourself she beareth that good mind as, in 
honour and place she occupieth, she may do to any, 
yea to that which the Queen's Majesty desireth, if 
those other things may ensue that are in private con- 
ference between them. Whereof you thought that no 
such stay will be, as either may hinder this purpose, 
or be an occasion that the good-will that is between 
them, may grow unto a coldness, or greater incon- 
venience ensue than I can afford in my heart to 
speak of. Her mind and determination herein is 
committed unto the two Lords who are so affected 
unto this cause, as no men more. Declaration is 
made of their mind, and sufficient testimony of their 
own good wills. If in so good a cause, so much to 
the Queen's Majesty's contentment, so profitable to 
your country, so comfortable to your friends, and 
honourable to your Lordship's self, there be found 
a stay in you, as all men hitherto have judged your 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 343 

Lordship worthy to marry the greatest Queen, so will 
this alter their opinions of you, worse than I can 
speak, or would be glad to think. But why should 
I be so mad as to believe that that could be your 
thought ? I think with myself that I do your 
Lordship over great injury thus to charge you, and 
therefore of this matter I will write no more, but 
take it as resolved, and travail the best I can to 
bring it to effect, wherein God send me such 
prosperous success as may be to your Lordship's 
honour. 

The selfsame occasions that were laid against 
your Lordship, of which I wrote, and of which 
I ground the cause of your Lordship's misliking of 
me, I am again charged with, or rather your Lord- 
ship burdened to your great negligence to woo a 
Queen, without labour or travail, cost, charge, 
message, token, no, not so much as once signifying 
of your own good will. It is enough for me always 
to say that it is no small honour for this Queen to 
have such a princess as my Sovereign to be a suitor ; 
your Lordship is right happy if so easily you may 
come by her. I would that I might, with much 
more labour and more earnest travail than ever 
your Lordship took in this matter, marry but some 
good old widow that had wherewith to keep me 
towards my old days. I must now crave pardon, 
and am sorry to have waded so far ; my mind is not 
to offend, but in all dutiful service duly to serve your 
Lordship during my life. I might here well leave 
further to write unto your Lordship, with more 
thanks peradventure than to take further pains, but 
this I cannot leave out, which I must (saving that 
which was done for my Sovereign's sake) chiefly 
attribute unto your Lordship. Greater entertain- 
ment, or greater honour could not be done to the 
greatest ambassador that the Queen's Majesty could 
have sent unto this Queen, than was done to me at 
St. Andrews. For four days together I dined and 
supped daily at her Grace's table ; I sat next unto 



344 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

herself saving worthy Beaton 1 our mistress. I had 
longer talk and conference with her than any other 
during the time. Enough, I assure your Lordship, if I 
were able to report all, to make all the ill-will to both 
these Queens' felicities burst asunder for envy. Of 
your Lordship we have not spared to speak also, 
but nothing of that which of any other things I desire 
least should come unto her knowledge, wherein I have 
said so much that if half were but true, your Lordship 
I am sure is half-consumed in love for her sake. 

Either Randolph was "a deluded simpleton" — deceived 
by Mary as well as Elizabeth, according to T. F. Henderson 
among modern historians, and Elizabeth, Leicester and 
Cecil were equally misled as to Mary's tactics, according 
to Froude, or, as Andrew Lang maintained — and these 
letters I believe tend to confirm his view — she was really 
sincere when she consented to the Leicester match at the 
beginning of this month. Having always opposed the 
coming of Darnley as being bound to add to the difficulties 
of his own delicate negotiations, Randolph was now as 
amazed as disconcerted to find, just when Mary had appeared 
willing to submit, that both Leicester and Cecil were 
earnestly working towards that very end : 

THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 

[Scottish Calendar, Vol. II.] 

Berwick, February 12, 1564. 

I arrived here upon Thursday last, minding on 
Monday next to return to Edinburgh, where the 
Queen will be a few days after. Yesterday I 
received yours of the 5th, and was glad to see you 
had no worse than a cold. By your letter I perceive 
what earnest means hath been made both by my 
Lord Robert and your Honour for my Lord Darnley's 
licence to come into Scotland. Your Honour's con- 
sideration here is enough to satisfy me, how loath 

1 Mary Beaton who, two years later, however, married Alexander 
Ogilvy of Boyne. 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 345 

soever I am that any comfort should be taken here 
by any as to think that through his presence my 
purpose here should be subverted, or that they that 
have stood in perfect amity and good will with my 
Sovereign, should be grieved or offended that any 
such should be licensed to come into the country, 
of whom there is so much conceived against, as to 
your honour is not unknown, both by word and 
writing. My mind was ever to obey unto her 
Majesty's will, but how to frame or fashion this, 
that it may be both to her Majesty's honour and 
thorough contentment in the end, I must now take 
one care more upon me than before I had, which 
must be supported by your Honour's good advice, 
for truly of myself I know not yet what to think, or 
how to behave myself. 

Nine days previously Throckmorton, now preparing for a 
mission across the border, received elaborate hints as 
to the friends and enemies of Lennox " if the time may serve 
in Scotland," and "if Darnley hit the mark." 1 There is no 
proof that Darnley aimed at this, or that Mary proved a 
ready target, at their first meeting, which took place on 
February 18, at the house of the Laird of Wemyss, though 
" he was welcomed and honourably used," as Randolph 
informed Leicester on the 19th. According to Melville, Mary 
" took well with him, and said that he was the lustiest and 
best proportioned long man that she had seen." But it was 
not until later that she so obviously lost her head over this 
" lady-faced lad " of nineteen, who, after thus first meeting 
with his fate, continued his journey on the following morning 
to his father at Dunkeld. On his arrival Lennox wrote to 
Elizabeth thanking her for thus " licensing his son to come 
to me," and " trusting you shall never have cause to repent." 2 
Darnley himself sent a separate letter to Leicester, testifying 
to his anxiety at this period to retain the friendship of 
Elizabeth's all-powerful favourite : 

1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. II., pp. 118 — 9. 

2 Ibid., p. 127. 



346 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

LORD DARNLEY TO THE EARL OF LEICESTER. 
[Ellis's " Original Letters." Second Series, Vol. II.] 

Dunkeld, February 21, 1565. 
My especial good Lord, 

Your accustomed friendliness during my continu- 
ance in the Court, yea, since I first knew your 
Lordship, cannot, though I am now far from you, be 
forgotten of my part : but the remembrance thereof 
constraineth me in these few lines to give your Lordship 
my humble thanks therefore, and to assure your Lord- 
ship that, during my life, I shall not be forgetful of 
your great goodness and good nature showed sundry 
ways to me : but to my power shall ever be ready to 
gratify you in anything I may as assuredly as your 
own brother. And thus with my humble commenda- 
tions to your good Lordship, I wish you as well as 
your own heart would. 

Your Lordship's assured to command, 

H. Darnley. 

My L. my father sendeth your Lordship his most 
hearty commendations. 

Before the end of the month Darnley was with the Queen 
in Edinburgh, dancing with her on occasion at Murray's 
request, and doubtless often enough in Mary's mind as a 
possible future husband. " For myself," however, wrote 
Randolph, " I see no great good will borne to him. Of her 
Grace's good usage and often talk with him, her continuance 
and good visage, I think it proceeds rather of her own 
courteous nature, than that anything is meant which some 
here fear may ensue." x Afterwards, however, he confessed 
that he could not tell what affections may be stirred up in 
her, or whether she will be at any time moved that way, 
seeing she is a woman and in all things desireth to have her 
own will." 2 She still professed to Randolph her readiness 
to marry Leicester, though "in some mistrust of these long 
delays," as the English ambassador informed Cecil in a letter 

1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. II., p. 136. 

2 Wright's "Queen Elizabeth and her Times," Vol. I., p. 194. 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 347 

which also brings again on the scene the significant figure of 
the daredevil Bothwell, now returned, uninvited, from his 
exile in France. 

Bothwell had been released by Elizabeth a year previously 
at the request of Mary Stuart that he might have liberty " to 
depart your realm for such countries beyond sea as shall 
seem to him most convenient." * Proceeding to France he 
was appointed Captain of the King's Scottish Guard, but was 
now eager to return and settle his account in Scotland. He 
had accordingly sent young Murray of Tullibardine " to 
purchase some grace and favour " at the hands of his Queen, 
who, adds Randolph in announcing this fact to Cecil, " of 
herself, is not evil-affected to him, but there are many causes 
why he is not so looked on as some others are — and more 
favour cannot be shown to him — accused of conspiring 
against her to take her by force, and to kill those in chief 
credit about her, and when committed to prison (as it may 
be thought finding himself guilty) broke it and left his 
country — than to Arran, who detected the same, and is yet 
detained." 2 The failure of Tullibardine's mission only served 
to inflame Bothwell the more against his enemies. He 
landed without leave, breathing vengeance, but was wise 
enough not to venture near the Queen's presence, though 
Froude describes him as standing there, braving all, " none 
daring to lift a hand against him — proud, insolent, and 
dangerous." In point of fact Bothwell was reported by 
Bedford on March 10 as hiding in the neighbourhood of 
Haddington, "finding no safety for himself anywhere " ; and 
he kept at a safe distance from Court. Mary, naturally 
offended at hearing of the infamous words which Bothwell 
had spoken of her, calling her the mistress of her uncle, the 
Cardinal of Lorraine, swore to Randolph upon her honour 
that he should never receive favour at her hands. " Bothwell 
said in France," declared Randolph to Throckmorton, " that 
both the Queens [Elizabeth and Mary] could not make one 
honest woman ; and for his own, if she had taken any but a 
Cardinal, it had been better borne with " 3 : 

1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. II., p. 39- 

2 Ibid., p. 129. 

3 Ibid., p. 140. 



348 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 

[Scottish Calendar, Vol. II.] 

Edinburgh, March 15, 1565. 

... Of Bothwell's arrival I doubt not your honour 
is advertised by my Lord of Bedford. The Queen 
altogether mislikes his home coming without her 
licence, and has already sent a sergeant of arms to 
summon him to underlie the law — which if he refused 
to do, he shall be pronounced rebel. As it is thought 
he will perchance seek refuge in England, I am 
required to write to you to move her Majesty that he 
may have no receipt there, and her officers be warned ; 
as I have already written to Lord Bedford and Sir 
John Forster. Bothwell is also charged by Murray 
that came last out of France, of speaking dishonour- 
able words against this Queen, and threatening my 
Lord of Murray and Lethington that he would be 
the death of both when he returned to Scotland. 

Yet Bedford suspected Mary of favouring Bothwell, whom 
he accuses at the same time of being much given to a vile and 
unmentionable vice. 1 According to Randolph, when he 
declined to obey her summons to take his trial on the " day 
of law " declared for him — shrewdly guessing what his fate 
would be in the midst of Murray and his 6,000 armed sup- 
porters — and he was condemned in his absence, she would 
not have him " put to the horn." Seeing how things stood, 
however, his case for the time being hopeless, Bothwell 
again sought safety in France. 

It has been supposed that Mary finally despaired of 
Elizabeth's good faith in the Leicester match on March 15, 
when Randolph " did communicate his sovereign's resolution 
to her — causing her, as he heard afterwards, to ' weep her 
fill ' — that even though she married Leicester, Elizabeth 
would not proceed to the examination or declaration of her 
interest in the succession until she herself had married or 
notified her determination never to marry " ; and that Leth- 
ington neither would, nor could, counsel her to delay longer. 
Andrew Lang controverted this theory in his " New Light 
1 Foreign Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. VII., p. 327. 




[Photo, Giraudon 
CHARLES, CARDINAL OF LORRAINE 
After the portrait in the Bibliotheque des Arts et Metiers 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 349 

on Mary Queen of Scots" in Blackwood's Magazine in 
July, 1907, in which he produced fresh evidence in a number 
of hitherto unpublished letters of supreme importance in this 
connexion. Only a brief condensation is given by Andrew 
Lang of the longest of these new documents, which is now 
printed from the manuscript in the British Museum : 

THOMAS RANDOLPH TO THE EARL OF LEICESTER. 
[Egerton MS., 1819, fol. 47, British Museum. 1 ] 

Edinburgh, March 20, 1565. 

It is now time, and I know that your Lordship 
looketh for it that you should hear from hence : but 
where to begin, or what to write, I know not. To 
write of all things that I wish should come to your 
Lordship's knowledge, I cannot. To write less of 
all matters than doth concern your Lordship were 
too great a failure. I will begin at those things 
that last occurred : and as time serveth, write of 
the rest. Upon Wednesday the 13th of this instant 
I received letters from the Queen's Majesty of her 
resolution for the demands of this Queen. I took 
the next whole day for advisement to consider upon 
the matter, and inform myself what I might say. 
Upon Friday I attended upon her Grace at dinner 
and, in such merry talk among the rest that were 
present, passed that time as I might. After her 
dinner, in as good words and as merry sort as I 
could — what grief somever was at my heart — I told 
her Grace that I had received some letters from the 
Queen's Majesty, my mistress. She was much more 
desirous to hear what these imported than I was 
to utter the contents. I declared at good length, 
and in as fair speech as I could, the whole contents 

1 The letter is copied from the collection of modern (19th century) 
transcripts of MSS. relating to Scotland, 1538 — 1705. A pencil note 
says that their accuracy is very doubtful, but the genuineness of the 
present letter is indisputable. According to the British Museum 
catalogue the originals of the transcripts formed part of the collection 
of Dawson Turner, and appear at one time to have belonged to 
John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale, Secretary of State for Scotland, 
in Charles II. 's reign. 



350 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

of the Queen's Majesty's letter and resolution, 
whereof I doubt not but your Lordship hath been 
privy. I could not so cunningly handle the matter, 
nor temper it with such terms, but I might perceive 
in her, in my tale-telling, that altogether she grew 
discontented. I persuaded with her Grace what I 
could to find all good, and that there was no hurt, 
nor that it could be prejudicial unto her, though 
that which she chiefly desired were deferred for a 
time. To leave many circumstances and purposes 
that passed between us, in the end thus she saith, 
that I had done her wrong to train her so long, 
and to nourish her in such vain hope, as I have done 
in matters that were never intended, and might as 
well be resolved upon at the first as after so long 
a time as they have had to be thought upon. 

To this I answered, that the matters were great, 
and therefore required the longer time, with the 
better judgment there should be resolved upon ; 
and, for my part, I saw nothing that was prejudicial 
to her Grace, or why she should mislike. " I have 
had," saith she, "warning enough of your doings, 
and might, if I had been wise in time, have taken 
heed unto you." I took those words spoken of 
myself, and said that I had rather her Grace should 
think them of me than of my Mistress, that so dearly 
loved her. " I accuse not your Mistress," saith she, 
"though she be loath to give unto me my desire in 
that which perchance any would be loath to do ; 
but, so long time to keep me in doubt, and now to 
answer me with nothing, I find great fault, and fear 
it shall turn to her discredit more than to my loss. 
I will content myself with my small portion, and 
maintain that as God will give me grace. When 
better cometh, it shall be thankfully received of Him. 
I assure you, and of none other, I would that I 
might have been most bound to my sister your 
Mistress. Seeing that cannot be, I will not fail in 
any good offices towards her, but to trust much from 
henceforth in her, for that matter I will not." 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 351 

With as many good words as I could I sought to 
mitigate that choler. Nothing would serve for that 
time. She taketh her horse and rideth a hunting. 
I tarried behind to talk with my Lord of Murray. 
What shall I say but that I found him almost 
stark mad ? ; not that the matter is desperate, but for 
fear his sovereign should conceive such displeasure 
hereat, that greater unkindness will ensue, whereby 
we may enter into the old suspicions and opinions 
that we have had, the one of the other. I talked with 
him long. I found him reasonable enough : so that 
the way be found how these two countries may live 
in peace and concord, which he preferreth before 
the whole world. In this meantime in cometh the 
Lord of Lethington. I made him also privy of the 
Queen's mind. He saith that he findeth nothing 
strange, for he knoweth so much of the Queen's 
Majesty's nature that she will never resolve in that 
point : nor ever believed that it was possible to 
persuade her to it. He alleged many reasons, and 
somewhat more of choler than judgment. We took 
up the matter here. 

The Queen returned from her pastimes. I pre- 
sented myself to be seen and perceived more sadness 
in her look than countenance amiss towards me. 
She retired to her cabinet : and I again to my two 
good lords. I warned them only to take good advice 
what counsel they gave, and bade them beware that 
they be not too hasty in their resolutions. The one 
of them said : " Where ye intend us no good, it is 
no matter how little we follow of your counsel." 
I bade them tarry a time, lest perchance they did 
repent it. " Jacta est alea, v saith one ; " I will care 
no more what cometh of the matter." I had not 
a Latin proverb to answer him with, but with an old 
English saw I told him that " he that was a-cold 
should blow the reek." I know not of us all three 
who was most angry. I took my leave, thinking the 
next day to talk more of the matter. 

In the morning I wrote to my Lord of Lethington 



352 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

a request to take part of a small portion that quietly 
I would provide for him and me in my chamber. 
He excused himself upon reasonable cause, as forced 
against his will to be other where. Being at my 
meat, I heard that the Queen would ride forth. I 
made myself ready to attend upon her Grace. Upon 
the sands of Leith she beheld a long space my Lord 
of Darnley, Lord Robert [Stuart] and divers others 
run at the ring. As little was done praiseworthily 
as the day of the great triumph, when we thought 
best of ourselves. It pleased her Grace there to 
begin with me again of this doubtful case of mine. 
She declareth her Grace's love and affection towards 
my Sovereign, almost so far as to such obedience 
as to her own dear mother ; yea, and I assure your 
Lordship (be it spoken with no dispraise to her 
Majesty) with the tears standing in her eyes. I 
spoke as fair as was possible. I persuaded what 
I could. I entreated ; I swore that there was 
nothing but good meaning : but all things ended in 
nought. "The dishonour," saith she, " and shame, 
to be deceived, and being long since warned that 
that should be the end, maketh me sorrier than 
anything else. For I know if it were published 
to-morrow it would never profit me one iota." She 
told me in the end that she determined on the 
morrow to send Beaton into England to desire 
a safe conduct for the Lord of Lethington to pass 
into France, and required me to write unto my Lord 
of Bedford for licence to him for post-horses. I 
thought that resolution to be very sudden, and trusted 
by some protractions to find the means to overthrow 
it. I prevailed nothing with her. I attempted my 
Lord of Murray. " I beshrew me then," saith he, 
" I have travailed over far in the matter, and fear 
that I shall repent it." With the Lord of Lethington 
I could not speak for business that he had to do — 
I know not where. The next word that I heard 
was from Beaton, who came to me for my letter to 
my Lord of Bedford, and to know what I would 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 353 

command to the Court. I gave him my letter to my 
Lord of Bedford, and said for that time I would 
trouble him no further. 

This Sunday, after the sermon, which my Lord 
of Murray never faileth to attend, though it be far 
from his lodgings, I asked his Lordship if his choler 
were digested. " The devil cumber you," saith he, 
" our Queen doth nothing but weep and write. 
Amend this betimes or all will be nought." I willed 
him to tarry a reasonable time, and all things should 
be well. " It passeth my power," saith he. I 
answered again that so it did mine. 

There fell this day so great a storm of snow as 
though this whole winter there had been none. 
Where I purposed to have gone to the Court, I could 
not put my head out of the door. This morning, 
Monday, I thought to have found my Lord of Murray 
in his bed, and to have talked with him at good 
length ; but before I went out of my chamber I had 
one of his Lordship's servants to warn me that he 
would dine at the Treasurer's, and that I should 
meet him there, where also the Lord of Lethington 
would be. At our first meeting he cursed me that 
could guide a Queen no better when I had her in my 
will, but so to handle her that she nust be fain to 
put herself into her enemies' hands. I told him that 
it was well known where no good counsel would 
be followed. In cometh Lethington. I sat as fast 
upon him. We chafed ourselves well. I blamed 
him for his hasty dispatch of Beaton towards the 
Court for his safe conduct into France. First he 
saith that he findeth it best so ; for matters had no 
other issue, nor could abide any longer delay. His 
mistress's friends there were as earnest to get an 
answer as I was to persuade her to tarry a time. 
After long debate, they both found it good that this 
matter [the Leicester match] should not thus be 
given over. His errand into France was only a 
colour of a voyage into England, whither, if his only 
errand was directed, it could not but be thought of 

E.M.S. A A 



354 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

some that he went a wooing or seeking of a husband 
for his mistress. I desired him to be found true in 
that matter : he assured me that I should, and that 
nothing should be done that might displease my 
Mistress, but that things should be used in all such 
friendly sort as could be possible. I see that it must 
be so whether we will or not. For the answer of 
that which at this time I spoke unto this Queen, it 
is referred until his coming. In much gentler words 
we departed than we met. 

Thus much of this negotiation I thought good to 
write unto your Lordship, whereof I doubt not but 
your Lordship, to save my pain of writing so much 
again, will communicate the same to Mr. Secretary ; 
to whom of other matters I have written a large 
letter of doubts and fears of things that may ensue, 
rather than of any present will. 1 I would not that 
this should be unknown unto your Lordship that there 
is yet no doubt but all matters between the Queen's 
Majesty, and this Queen may very well be accorded ; 
for such an opinion hath she of late received of 
Her Majesty, that she will not, as she saith, yet 
change for any friend she hath. She is entered 
into most despiteful hatred of the Constable of 
France and his house, for her uncle's sake, and 
willed me to give warning how the Queen's Majesty 
doth trust him. We have news here of Mauvissiere 
coming with his presents ; and somewhat else 
spoken of that we cannot believe. 

I scarce dare advance it here that your Lordship 
was a counsellor of my Lord Darnley's coming hither ; 
for little thanks will the Hamiltons give you that sent 
them such a gift. They will be rather content that 
you come yourself and enjoy the best place in the 
whole country. Of the same mind is my Lord of 
Argyll, who desireth to be heartily commended to 
your Lordship, as also my Lord of Murray, though 
he saith that he be angry with you. I leave further 

1 This letter is printed in Wright's " Queen Elizabeth and her 
Times." 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 355 

troubling your Lordship, wishing that this letter 
may be at the Court as soon as Beaton, lest ye do 
return him with a sour answer, which I will now 
take upon me shall not be necessary ; but when you 
have Lethington in your hands, use him as you like ; 
for, as I have told him, the Tower is too good a 
place for him. Most humbly I take my leave. At 
Edinburgh the 20th of March, 1564. Your honour- 
able Lordship's ever at command. Tho. Randolphe. 

Randolph may have resented Lethington's conduct partly 
because he knew that he was in receipt of a pension from 
Elizabeth — after the custom of the age, which appeared to 
enable many statesmen to become pensioners of foreign 
rulers without necessarily sacrificing their duty to their own 
sovereigns. Lethington's journey to London was postponed 
for nearly a month, by which time all Randolph's hopes came 
tumbling down like a pack of cards, and Lethington went to 
Elizabeth's Court on quite another mission. From the letter 
of the 20th just printed, however, it seems clear that notwith- 
standing Elizabeth's declaration, Murray, Lethington and 
Randolph all hoped that the Leicester match might still be 
arranged. Now comes another and a later letter from 
Randolph — to Leicester's brother-in-law — which shows the 
English Ambassador, as Andrew Lang says in printing the 
following extract for the first time, more confident than ever 
that all would yet go well : 

THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR HENRY SIDNEY. 
[" New Light on Mary Queen of Scots," Blackwood's Magazine.'] 

Edinburgh, March 31, 1565. 

I have brought it unto that pass, that now that I 
have gotten the Queen's goodwill to marry where I 
would have her, I cannot get the man to take her, 
for whom I was suitor. How good an end I am like 
to make of my business in hand your Lordship by this 
may easily conjecture. But a man of that nature 
I never found any, that with so little labour may be 
called to so great honour (besides somewhat else of 
no small price) and yet will rather choose daily to be 

aa 2 



356 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

trained and led I know not whither than yield unto 
that which may make him blessed for ever. If She 
were unknown or never seen by your Lordship you 
might well marvel what divine thing it is by whom 
this great felicity may be achieved. 

To that which yourself hath been judge of with 
your eyes, there is now so much added of perfect 
beauty that in beholding the self-same person when 
you come again, you shall neither find that face nor 
feature, shape nor making, but all turned into a new 
nature far excelling any (our own most worthy Queen 
alone excepted) that ever was made since the first 
framing of mankind. How many countries, realms, 
cities, and towns have been destroyed and souls have 
suffered to satisfy the desire of wilful man ! But he 
whom I go about to make as happy as ever was any, 
to put him in possession of a kingdom, to make him 
prince of a mighty people, to lay in his naked arms a 
most fair and worthy lady, either nothing regardeth 
the good that shall ensue unto him thereby, the 
honour that shall be to his name and race, the profit 
that shall redound unto his country, — but so un- 
certainly dealeth that I know not where to find him, 
nor what to speak or promise, that I shall not be 
forced to alter or call back again. To write all that 
I think will require a much longer time than now I 
have ; thus much shortly your Lordship in earnest 
shall know, that this Queen and country was never so 
far at the Queen's Majesty's devotion. All resteth 
only upon declaration of the title which we [Mary] do 
more for honour regard than profit we hope for or desire 
thereof. In those terms now we stand that if shortly 
our goodwill be not embraced it must be extended to 
some other that gladly will receive us. The partner 
offered [Leicester] above any other liketh us ; it is now 
in your choice to do with us as you please. To make 
this matter shortly off or on, the Lord of Lethington 
repaireth to the Court : There shall we have our two 
fine secretaries matched together, a couple as well 
matched to draw in a yoke as any two that ever wrote 



LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 357 

with the pen. Before this matter be fully ended I 
doubt not but your Lordship may be at the contract 
making, but I assure your Lordship that so long time 
is detracted that I fear in the end we shall repent it. 
There is lately, or at the least not long since, come 
unto us the young lusty long Lord [Darnley] that 
looked ever so lofty in the Court where he went. I 
know not what alteration the sight of so fair a face 
daily in presence may work in our [Mary's] heart, but 
hitherto I have espied nothing, yet I am somewhat 
suspicious, or more peradventure fearful or jealous 
than a wise man would be. He is gently looked upon, 
courteously used, and well entertained at all hands, 
and in this honour that is done unto him hetaketh no 
less upon him than appertaineth unto him. . . . 

Leicester, however, had no intention of moving in the matter. 
Possibly, as Andrew Lang suggests, he finally spoilt whatever 
chance he had by his insolent familiarity with Elizabeth 
during his tennis match with the Duke of Norfolk — news of 
which must have reached Mary's ears at this time : 

THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR NICHOLAS 

THROCKMORTON. 

[Scottish Calendar, Vol. II.] 

Edinburgh, March 30, 1565. 

Lately the Duke's grace and my lord of Leicester 
were playing at tennis, the Queen beholding of them, 
and my Lord Robert being very hot and sweating, 
took the Queen's napkin out of her hand and wiped 
his face, which the Duke seeing, said that he was 
too saucy and swore that he would lay his racket upon 
his face. Hereupon rose a great trouble and the 
Queen was offended sore with the Duke. The tale is 
told by Atholl the same day that Fowler came here 
with his master's licence. We lack no news, for 
what is most secret among you is so soon at this 
Queen's ears that some would think it should be out 
of the privy chamber door where you are ! 

That was the last straw. In her wounded pride Mary 
turned to Darnley, nursed him through his puerile attack 



358 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

of measles, and did exactly what Elizabeth and Leicester, 
according to the theory supported by these documents, 
meant her to do. She lost her heart to the callow youth 
who was no more worthy to be her husband than was the 
now demented Earl of Arran. Don Carlos, at one time 
her most favoured candidate, was also a hopeless maniac. 
Surely no woman was ever more unfortunate in her suitors 
than this unhappy Princess, whose grace and beauty 
were acknowledged throughout the length and breadth of 
Christendom. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 

Darnley's True Character — Mary's Infatuation — Elizabeth Suspected 
of Double-dealing in the Matter— She Woos the Catholic 
Spanish Party — Her Ideas Regarding Marriage — Sends 
Throckmorton to Edinburgh — Lethington sent by Mary to 
London — His dealings with the Spanish Ambassador — Philip 
Approves of the Darnley Match — Scotland's Disapproval — 
Mary and Darnley's Measles — Creates Him Earl of Ross — 
Promises Throckmorton Not to Marry for Three Months — 
Darnley's Arrogance — Mary Believed to be Bewitched — Riccio's 
Influence — Protestant Lords Organise Revolt — Elizabeth 
commits Darnley's Mother to the Tower — Mary Sends a Fresh 
Ambassador to London — Good News From Spain — Mary and 
Darnley Married — The Turning Point in Mary's Career. 

Poltroon, profligate, and bully as Darnley soon revealed 
himself, his true character was as yet undeveloped at his 
first coming to Mary's Court, though Elizabeth had probably 
formed a shrewd idea of his worth. He seems to have made 
a good impression on his first arrival in Edinburgh. " His 
behaviour is very well liked," wrote Randolph to Cecil 
on February 27, " and hitherto he so governs himself that 
there is great praise of him." 1 By April 15, however, the 
Ambassador began to be seriously alarmed regarding the 
Queen's new-born passion : 

THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. II.] 

Berwick, April 15, 1565. 

I have not spared from time to time to write how 
much Lennox's home-coming was misliked, and 
what was feared by Darnley's arrival. The matter 
is now grown to further ripeness. The Queen's 
familiarity with him breeds no small suspicion that 
there is more intended than merely giving him 

1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. II., p. 128. 



360 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

honour for his nobility, or for the Queen's Majesty's 
sake, by whom it is said he was so well recommended. 
It is now commonly said, and I believe is more 
than a rumour, that this Queen has already such 
good liking of him that she can be content to forsake 
all other offers of suitors, and content herself with 
her own choice. I know not what Lethington knows 
or will utter, but am assured that, with the best of 
his country, he partakes their griefs of the incon- 
veniences and dangers like to ensue, which he shall 
as soon find as any. He can more easily find how 
far they have gone, and I wish he would be plain 
with your Honour, and deal as wisely and carefully 
in it as in all things to his Sovereign's advantage. 
And if he can so much prevail against his own hope 
as to persuade the Queen's Majesty to find it good 
and to yield as much with him as ever she was with 
any other, I must needs commend his wit for ever. 
Always I would that her Majesty were void of the 
suspicion that is here spoken to my face, that the 
sending Darnley home was done of purpose to match 
the Queen meanly and poorly, rather than live long 
in amity. However false it be, I fear if things thus 
ensue, men's hearts well affected to our Sovereign 
will alter. If they have proceeded farther than I 
have written, Lethington (if so much your friend as 
he pretends) will not in private sort keep it from 
you. 

Randolph's anxiety now was to avoid this growing 
suspicion that Mary's infatuation was " done of purpose " 
by Elizabeth herself: 

THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 

{Scottish Calendar, Vol. II.] 

Berwick, April 18, 1565. 

Whatsoever I wrote last to your honour, I can 
more boldly confirm by the fond tales and foolish 
reports of his lordship's own servants. My whole 
care is now to avoid the suspicion that the Queen's 



THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 361 

Majesty was the means and worker hereof, as may 
be alleged by some, as it was of his father's return 
at her Majesty's suit. I see likelihood enough of 
mischief among themselves, besides cutting off the 
amity. What is thought of Darnley himself, his 
behaviour, wit and judgment, I would there were 
less spoken than is, or less occasion for all men to 
enlarge their tongues as they do. Of this I have 
a greater number of particulars than I may well put 
in writing, which shall not be secret to you, though 
I cannot utter them but with great grief of heart. 

Now indeed I repent my time so long bestowed 
among them that through their own unadvised 
doings have brought their country to confusion. 
With the Duke of Chatelherault I spoke not long 
since. He takes his house quite overthrown, and 
with heavy heart beholds the sight of them that he 
fears shall be his confusion. He trusted much in 
the Queen's favour ; now he sees his undoing and 
all his adversaries' moves tending to that end. The 
godly cry out that they are undone — no hope now 
of the sure establishment of Christ's true religion, 
but all turning to confusion. When you confer with 
Lethington, you shall better conceive what shall be 
best for both realms. Without care he cannot be, 
and if at any time I have seen him perplexed, it has 
been since these matters came to light, and the 
opinions of men he has heard thereon. 

The scene shifts to London a few weeks back in order to 
show what meantime was happening at the English Court. 
While Mary was still professing her readiness to marry 
Leicester that presumptuous Earl was playing quite another 
game, entertaining Elizabeth with lavish hospitality, and 
arranging for her special benefit a dramatic performance in 
favour of marriage. Comedy was running riot at the English 
Court while tragedy was in the making at the Court of Mary 
Stuart. Reading between the lines of Guzman's account of 
these amusements, and of the English Queen's subsequent 
snubbing of Dr. Nowell in public, it is not difficult to detect 



362 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

her renewed desire to woo the Catholic-Spanish Party. 
Elizabeth was nothing if not a born opportunist, and the 
news of the approaching conference at Bayonne 1 between 
Catherine de' Medici and the Queen of Spain, with Alba and 
the Papal representatives in attendance, filled her with 
distrust. She was never in love with the Puritans, and 
was no longer afraid to tell them so : 

GUZMAN DE SILVA TO PHILIP II. 

[English Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, March 12, 1565. 

On the 5th instant the party of the Earl of Leicester 
gave a supper to the Queen in the palace, which was 
the wager their opponents had won of them on the 
previous day. The French Ambassador with Margaret 
[Lady Lennox] and other of the principal ladies supped 
with the Queen, as is usual on similar occasions. 
There was a joust and a tourney on horseback after- 
wards. The challengers were the Earl of Leicester, 
the Earl of Sussex, and Hunsdon. The Queen sent 
for me to be with her during the entertainment, and 
while I was there she spoke of the liberty which she 
said her preachers had, especially as regards their 
speech, and their resistance to the ecclesiastical 
costume which they were ordered to wear, as I had 
told her ten days before. The tourney was a good 
one, as such things go here, with four and twenty 
horsemen between challengers and opponents. When 
it was ended the Queen entered her apartments, 
asking me, if I was not tired, to stay and see the 
rest of the rejoicing for the day. She left Viscount 
Montague and her Vice-Chamberlain with me until 
the Earl of Leicester disarmed, when the rest of the 
guests and I went to his apartments to supper. When 
this was ended we went to the Queen's rooms, and 
descended to where all was prepared for the repre- 
sentation of a comedy in English, of which I under- 

1 At which the massacre of St. Bartholomew is said to have been 
planned, as part of the extermination of Protestantism throughout 
the world. 



THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 363 

stood just so much as the Queen told me. The plot 
was founded on the question of marriage, discussed 
between Juno and Diana, Juno advocating marriage, 
and Diana chastity. Jupiter gave a verdict in favour 
of matrimony, after many things had passed on both 
sides in defence of the respective arguments. The 
Queen turned to me and said, " This is all against 
me." After the comedy there was a masquerade of 
satyrs, or wild gods, who danced with the ladies, and 
when this was finished there entered ten parties of 
twelve gentlemen each, the same who had fought in 
the foot tourney, and these, all armed as they were, 
danced with the ladies — a very novel ball, surely. 
After this the Queen went up to her apartments 
again, where they had spread a very large table in 
the presence chamber, with many sorts of cakes, 
confitures, and preserves, and in one part of it there 
were herrings and other small fishes in memory of 
the principle of Lent. The Queen asked whether I 
would eat anything, and on my replying that I would 
not, she laughed, and said : " I understand you very 
well, and will not cheat you ; 12 o'clock has struck," 
and with that she entered her chamber, not very tired 
to all appearance, although the entertainment had 
been so long. She said how much she wished your 
Majesty had been present, and she could entertain 
and feast you here. 

On the following day, Ash Wednesday, she went 
into a great courtyard, where, on occasions such as 
this, the sermon is preached, so that the people on 
all sides may hear, as great crowds go, although the 
Queen tells me that more go to see her than to hear 
the sermon. The preacher was the Dean of St. 
Paul's, 1 who has replaced the one now in prison, from 
whom he must be very different in person and 
doctrine. After preaching for some time he began 
to speak ill of a book written by a Catholic, who is 
in Louvain, in praise of the Cross, and went on to 
abuse images. As soon as he commenced the Queen 
1 Dr. Alexander Nowell. 



364 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

said : " Do not talk about that." The preacher, as 
I am told, could not have heard her and went on, 
whereupon the Queen raised her voice, and pointedly 
said to him : " Leave that, it has nothing to do with 
your subject, and the matter is now threadbare." 

The preacher was confused, spoke a few words more, 
and finished his sermon, and the Queen left apparently 
very angry, as I am told, many of the Protestant 
hearers being in tears, whilst the Catholics rejoice. 
So strong is the hope born of desires that insignificant 
events elate and depress men thus. 

A few weeks later Guzman was afforded further proof of 
Her Majesty's new leanings: " I was praising lately to the 
Queen," he wrote on April 26, "the ceremony she per- 
formed on Holy Thursday and the sermon of her Bishop- 
Almoner, and the devotion with which she made the crosses 
on the feet of the poor women and kissed them, as I informed 
your Majesty in a former letter, to which she answered : 
" Many people think we are Turks or Moors here, whereas 
we only differ from other Catholics in things of small 
importance.' I said : ' And those things your Majesty will 
soon amend.' ' And you will see it,' she replied. But one 
can only believe what one sees. The changes are not from 
day to day, but from hour to hour." 1 Elizabeth also found 
it advisable to encourage the belief that she was still willing 
to negotiate for a Spanish marriage, Guzman listening with 
polite amusement, but without enthusiasm to her views on 
this subject. Her opinions in regard to marriage in general 
are more in accord with the advanced feminism of to-day 
than the prevailing ideas of the sixteenth century. The 
following dialogue ensued after the amiable Ambassador had 
repeated the rumours which had reached him in March that 
Her Majesty meant to marry the King of France : 

She held down her head a little and laughed, and 
I then told her that I had mentioned it to the French 
Ambassador, who asked me what I thought of it, as 
the King is short and the Queen tall, to which she 

1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 425. 



THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 365 

replied : " They tell me he is not short, but I wish to 
confess to you as it is Lent and you are my friend : 

11 Marriage was suggested to me with the King, my 
brother-in-law ; the King of France has proposed as 
well as the Kings of Sweden and Denmark, and I 
understand the Archduke Charles also : the only 
person who has not been mentioned to me is your 
Prince." 

" The reason," I said, "appears clear. The King 
my master no doubt is convinced that your Majesty 
does not wish to marry, since he, the greatest prince in 
Christendom and the wisest, to whom, I am told, your 
Majesty owes most obligation, was offered to you, 
and nothing came of it." 

She replied : " For my own part I do not think 
that such a conclusion is so clear as you say, although 
at that time I had a great idea not to marry, and I 
promise you, if I could to-day appoint such a succes- 
sor to the Crown as would please me and the country, 
I would not marry, as it is a thing for which I have 
never had any inclination. My subjects, however, 
press me so that I cannot help myself, but must 
marry or take the other course, which is a very 
difficult one. There is a strong idea in the world 
that a woman cannot live unless she is married, or at 
all events that if she refrains from marriage she does 
so for some bad reason, as they said of me that I did 
not marry because I was fond of the Earl of Leicester, 
and that I would not marry him because he had a 
wife already. Although he has no wife alive now, I 
still do not marry him, notwithstanding that I was 
spoken to about it even on behalf of my brother the 
King. But what can we do ? We cannot cover 
everybody's mouth, but must content ourselves with 
doing our duty and trust in God, for the truth will at 
last be made manifest. He knows my heart, which is 
very different from what people think, as you will see 
some day. I wish your master were here that I 
might entertain and consult with him, as please God 
some day I may. If he goes by way of France you 



366 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

know the road is a bad and a long one, and there are 
always difficult bits on a long journey." With that 
she laughed and passed to the subject of the inter- 
view of our lady the Queen with her mother, about 
which I told her I knew no more than I had already 
conveyed to her from your Majesty. 1 

Next month Guzman reported that Elizabeth " was 
always giving him hints about her marriage with the King 
of France " ; and, in point of fact, this impossible match had 
again been under discussion with the Ambassadors on both 
sides for the last two months. De Foix was instructed to 
renew the suit by Catherine de' Medici, who, having her own 
game to play, was as insincere as the English Queen. Eliza- 
beth, though it suited her hand to hint at the possibility of 
such a match in order, if possible, to sow the seeds of dis- 
sension between France and Spain, did not give De Foix 
much encouragement. " I find myself, on the one hand," she 
said to him when he broached the subject in February, 
" much honoured by the proposal of the French King ; on 
the other, I am older than he, and would rather die than 
see myself despised and neglected. My subjects, I am 
assured, would oppose no obstacle, if it were my wish, for 
they have more than once prayed me to marry after my 
own inclination. It is true they have said that it would 
pleasure them if my choice should fall on an Englishman. 
In England, however, there is no one disposable in marriage 
but the Earl ot Arundel, and he is further removed from the 
match than the east from the west; and as to the Earl of 
Leicester, I have always loved his virtues, but the aspirations 
towards honour and greatness which are in me, cannot suffer 
him as a companion and a husband." Nevertheless, she did 
not allow De Foix to abandon the idea for some time, the 
negotiations lasting until there was no longer any need to 
keep up the pretence. 

When news arrived of Mary's sudden liking for Darnley 
Elizabeth professed extreme annoyance, and told Guzman that 
she was sending Throckmorton to prevent that marriage if 

1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., pp. 409 — 10. 

2 Strickland's " Lives of the Queens of England." 



THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 367 

possible ; " but day by day goes by," wrote that Ambassador 
on April 28, " and he does not depart." x He did not leave 
until May 4, — with instructions to assure Mary of Elizabeth's 
approval of her marriage with any " sortable " nobleman of 
England except Darnley, but to make it quite clear that only 
with the Earl of Leicester would Elizabeth be content to 
inquire into or publish Mary's title to succeed her. Before 
Throckmorton left Elizabeth placed Darnley's mother again 
under arrest, as Guzman at once informed his master : 

Lady Margaret sent word to me that she had gone 
to the Queen's chamber and that her Majesty refused 
to speak to her, and afterwards sent an order that she 
was not to leave her apartments, giving her to under- 
stand that she was to consider herself a prisoner, as 
she had received letters from a foreign prince without 
her permission, and without conveying the contents 
to her. Lady Margaret answered that it was true 
she had received a letter from the Queen of Scotland 
by her Secretary, and had gone to the Queen's 
chamber for the purpose of showing it to her Majesty, 
who had refused to speak to her, and consequently it 
was not her (Margaret's) fault. An answer came 
from the Queen to the effect that although she was 
detained in her apartments, there was no intention of 
preventing her friends from visiting her, as is usually 
done here in cases where persons are placed under 
arrest. Lady Margaret also advised me that the 
negotiations for the marriage of her son with the 
Queen of Scotland were progressing favourably, and 
asked me in case Lethington said anything about it 
to me to assure him that your Majesty was favourable 
to it, as they were, and always had been, so faithful to 
your Majesty. 2 

Lethington had been sent by Mary to smooth the way for 
the marriage upon which she had now set her heart. He 
was to tell Elizabeth that having, " for her sake, forborne 
to hearken to the matching with any foreign prince," Mary 

1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 427. 
a Ibid., p. 420. 



368 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

could incline herself to marry Darnley if she had Elizabeth's 
good will and assent thereto. 1 At the same time, as can be 
seen in Guzman's next letter, he was to secure the support 
of Spain — even, if advisable, to reopen negotiations for 
Mary's marriage with Don Carlos. This last must have 
been mere diplomatic subterfuge on Mary's part, for a letter 
which she had received from the Duchess of Aerschot at the 
end of 1564 had made it clear that Don Carlos was out of 
the question : 

GUZMAN DE SILVA TO PHILIP II. 

[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, April 26, 1565. 

On the same day that I had audience of the Queen 
I spoke with Lethington at the French Ambassador's, 
having gone thither from the palace. On leaving 
there Lethington went with me to my house, which 
lay in his road, and said he had something to tell me 
as he had hinted before, and promised to come to my 
house the next day for an interview. He talked of 
this Queen on our way home, and said she was trying 
to get all the marriageable Princes to propose to her, 
and he therefore thought that at her instance they 
were discussing her marriage with the King of France, 
as he also said they were treating with the Archduke 
Charles. I told him I did not believe there were any 
negotiations going on with regard to the latter, as I 
knew nothing of such negotiations, and if they were 
really taking place I could not fail to be informed, 
seeing your Majesty's affection for the Archduke and 
your desire to promote his interests. He said : " I 
understand that this Queen is arranging something 
in France. I do not know whether it is some close 
alliance, or only a feint to arouse suspicion and get 
better terms in Flanders." " But," I replied, " it 
might be rather to arouse suspicion on the part of 
your Queen if it be true that she is not on good terms 
with the Queen-Mother." " Yes," he said, " and I 

1 Stevenson's "Selections," p. 115. 



THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 369 

am surprised at it, for when my Queen was in France 
she could not do too much for the Queen- Mother, 
and put her own friends and relatives quite in the 
background for her, and yet in return for all this she 
has done her much harm. I did not dare to visit ) ya 
before I had been to see the (French) Ambassador 
in order not to awaken distrust, but I will do so 
to-morrow." 

He came at the hour appointed, and after giving 
me his credentials spoke to me on his Queen's behalf, 
saying how great was the desire she had always had, 
even in France, to be guided by your Majesty's will 
and place herself in your hands. He had treated of 
this with the Bishop of Aquila, who knew the extent 
of the party his Queen had in this country, and had 
discussed with him the project of his Queen's marriage 
with his Highness, towards which her Majesty had 
shown herself favourable. She had awaited your 
Majesty's resolution on this point for over two years 
and as so long a delay had taken place, and it might 
be feared that your Majesty had other plans in view, 
the pressure of her subjects, her own age, and the 
inconvenience of a young Queen remaining unmarried 
had caused her to listen to certain proposals and con- 
versations with the son of the Earl of Lennox and 
Lady Margaret. Besides being related to her on 
both his father's and his mother's side he was not a 
foreigner, which is the principal condition made by 
this Queen and the Queen of Scotland's own subjects. 
She had done her best to satisfy this Queen in this, 
having in view the succession to the English crown, 
but nevertheless she was quite free to do as she liked, 
and had placed the matter before her Council for their 
satisfaction. If, however, I gave her any hope of the 
negotiations with his Highness' proceeding, her own 
wishes and intentions on the subject were unchanged, 
and she begged me to tell her what I knew about it, 
as she had been informed by Cardinal de Granvelle 
that I had orders from your Majesty. I answered 
that your Majesty had always heard such Mattering 

E.M.S. B B 



370 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

accounts of her great virtues that you held her in all 
love and esteem, and was glad when the subject of a 
union with the Prince was first broached, but that 
having heard that Cardinal Lorraine had treated with 
the Emperor about the Archduke, and had shown him 
letters from the Queen saying that she left her mar- 
riage entirely in his hands and those of her mother 
(Queen-Mother ? ) preferring rather to fail in his way 
than succeed in her own ; and the business having 
gone so far as the fixing of the allowance to be made 
by the Emperor for the Archduke's maintenance, and 
the solicitation of your Majesty's approval of the 
match, your Majesty had been constrained to signify 
such approval rather then offend the Emperor and the 
King of the Romans, and also because the Archduke's 
interests were as dear to you as those of his Highness. 

I followed in this, and in all else, the instructions I 
had received from your Majesty urging the Archduke's 
business to the full extent of my power. 

Although Lethington did not refer to this point he 
went on to say that what had happened was that as 
soon as the King of France, his Queen's husband, had 
died the Queen-Mother had conceived a great suspicion 
of the marriage of his Highness, having regard to the 
Scottish Queen's claims to this crown, and had sum- 
moned the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal and 
had begged them most urgently not to consent to any 
such marriage, seeing the danger and inconvenience 
that might result to France therefrom if to your 
Majesty's power were added that of these two king- 
doms. They promised as the Queen-Mother desired, 
and thought more of the benefit of France than the 
interests of their niece. When the Queen left France 
the Duke told her he would not advise her respecting 
her marriage, as he could not give her the counsel that 
was best for her, but that she herself should look 
where her best interests were. Whilst Lethington 
himself was in this country he received advice that 
Lorraine had an interview with the Emperor at 
Innspruck to discuss this match without the know- 



THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 371 

ledge of the Queen, and he (Lethington) had sent off 
in furious haste to the Cardinal begging him not to 
negotiate the marriage, as the Scottish people would 
not consent to it, and it would cause confusion. He 
also said that the Cardinal was taking this step without 
having consulted the Queen, as he (Lethington) was 
well acquainted with her views, and was convinced 
that it was unsuitable that she should marry a foreign 
Prince unless he was powerful enough to hold his 
own. He sent a copy of this letter to his mistress to 
put her on her guard, but the Cardinal had neverthe- 
less persevered in his action, and had written to the 
Queen, who thought that as the Archduke was a son 
and relative of such powerful monarchs, she could not 
refuse him hastily, but in a respectful way said that 
she would lay the matter before her subjects, and in 
the meanwhile could learn what the Emperor was 
going to do for his son ; the idea being to drop the busi- 
ness politely on one or other of these points. He 
always understood that the Cardinal's object was to 
prevent the match with the Prince, knowing at the 
same time that the marriage he was advocating would 
never be carried through, as the Archduke had not 
the wealth necessary for the purpose, and the Emperor 
was not near enough to be able to forward the designs 
and objects which would lead the Queen to introduce 
a foreign husband in her house against the will of her 
people, which, indeed, would be hopeless unless your 
Majesty took the whole matter in hand, and did it 
yourself, as this uncle had done for his niece. 

11 I have no doubt," I said, " that all this happened 
as you say, but the end of the business has been that 
my master the King will not comply with the respect 
due to his uncle, the Emperor, and his friendship 
with the King of the Romans, or with the love he 
bears to the Archduke, and will be prevented from 
displaying that regard and consideration due to his 
relatives. This has been the cause of the failure to 
send a reply, and not any want of the affection and 
attachment which the King feels towards your mis- 

b b 2 



372 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

tress. With regard to the proposed marriage with 
the son of the Earl of Lennox, since the Queen has 
to marry a native, it appears the most suitable 
match that can be found, both on account of the pro- 
mise displayed by the Lord Darnley himself, and on 
account of his parents, for whom, and particularly for 
Lady Margaret, my master has an especial regard.'' 
I impressed this upon him both to lead him away from 
the subject of the Prince, and because I knew he would 
communicate this to Margaret, and I wishedto continue 
the course I had adopted of trying to keep them in good 
humour in view of eventualities. He said, " It would 
certainly seem that, if my Queen ^could not marry 
a Prince powerful enough to ensure her against the 
dangers of marrying a foreigner, this is the best 
match for her, but it may have a great objection if 
this Queen does not take it well, as she shows signs of 
not doing. She might in such case take the side of 
Catherine, and, if she were to declare her the suc- 
cessor to the crown, it would be necessary for my 
Queen to use force to eject her if this Queen were 
to die, especially if the Protestant side is appealed to 
for support by the Queen of England ; or if she were 
to enter into a new and close confederation with 
France, or if, again, the French, moved by greed for 
this country, were to carry out in earnest that which 
they seem to be treating as a joke, namely, the mar- 
riage of their King with his Queen. All this would 
cause grave evil, but could be remedied by his Majesty 
the King taking my Queen and her affairs under his 
protection, in the assurance that at all times, and in 
every matter, they shall be considered as his own. 
In this way with perfect ease great effects might be 
produced, but such an arrangement would have to be 
treated with the utmost secrecy and kept quiet till the 
opportune moment. There is no doubt whatever 
that the majority of the gentry and common people 
are attached to my Queen, and I can affirm positively 
that she will follow in every respect the wishes of your 
master. To send an Ambassador to treat of this would 



THE DARNLEY MAERIAGE 373 

cause suspicion, and the Queen therefore begs you to 
inform the King of her desires, so that his Majesty 
may send you powers and full instructions, and we 
can then treat with all the speed and secrecy that the 
case requires. The Queen would do the same, but if 
it were thought that the matter could be dealt with 
better by the King's Ambassador in Paris (he being 
nearest to Spain) it could be done very well in that way, 
because the Queen of Scotland's Ambassador there is 
a prelate, and a person of great virtue and ability. 1 
Above all I wish you to understand that my Queen's 
wish and desire are what I have set forth." 

These negotiations were probably dictated as much by 
Lethington — the Cecil of Scotland — as by Mary herself, 
for now that Leicester was out of the question, and 
Elizabeth's friendship in danger, it was desirable for 
the moment to secure the support of Spain, even at 
the risk of a set-back to Protestantism. Guzman saw 
the fresh possibilities of uniting the Catholics of England 
and Scotland in revolt when the time was ripe, thus 
affording Philip a fair chance of stepping in and again 
taking England under his tutelage. Lethington therefore 
left London on May 4th with Throckmorton, assured of 
Guzman's interest and his intention to send post-haste 
for the King's instructions. For once Philip in reply 
showed some signs of eagerness : 

Your news on this head has been very pleasing to 
me, and, on the presumption that the marriage of 
the Queen and Darnley has really gone so far, the 
bridegroom and his parents being good Catholics 
and our affectionate servitors ; and, considering the 
Queen's good claims to the crown of England, to 
which Darnley also pretends, we have arrived at the 
conclusion that the marriage is one that is favourable 
to our interests, and should be forwarded and 
supported to the full extent of our power. We have 
thought well to assure the Queen oi Scotland and Lord 
Darnley's party — which we believe is a large one in 

1 Archbishop Beaton. 



374 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

the country — that this is our will and determination 
and that if they will govern themselves by our advice 
and not be precipitate, but patiently await a 
favourable juncture, when any attempt to upset their 
plans would be fruitless, I will then assist and aid 
them in the aim they have in view. I have instructed 
the Duke of Alba to address himself to this effect to 
the Scottish Ambassador resident in the Court of 
France, but I think well to advise you of it also in 
order that you may know my views and keep them 
quite secret from the Queen of England and her friends, 
seeing the great danger which would result to the 
business itself and all other of our affairs if it 
became known. 1 

Lethington in the meanwhile had returned to a Scotland 
full of turmoil and discontent, as may be judged from 
Randolph's next letter: 

THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. II.] 

Edinburgh, May 3, 1565. 

Such discontent, large talk, and open speech I 
never heard in any nation, and for myself see not 
but it must burst out in great mischief — for the 
Queen is suspected by many of her nobles, and her 
people are discontented for her religion, this match 
a-making without advice, and other as evil things 
they suspect, besides her unprincely behaviour in 
many of her doings. They will shortly either have 
it reformed, or openly signify that what she has 
taken in hand tends to her own destruction and over- 
throw of tranquillity of her realm — and must be 
helped by sharper means. They are not one or two, 
nor are they meanest that speak it, nor the unlikeliest 
to execute it. 

Their talk of this marriage is so contrary to their 
minds, that they think their nation dishonoured, the 
Queen shamed, and country undone. A greater 

1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., pp. 432 — 3. 



THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 375 

plague to herself and them there cannot be, a 
greater benefit to the Queen's Majesty could not 
have chanced than to see this dishonour fall upon 
upon her, and her so matched where she shall be 
ever assured that she can never attain to what she 
so earnestly looked for, and without it would accord 
to nothing. She is now in utter contempt of her 
people, and so far in doubt of them herself, that, 
without speedy redress, worse is to be feared. Many 
grievous and sore words have of late escaped her 
against the Duke of Chatelherault, she mortally hates 
Argyll, and so far suspects Murray that not many 
days since, she said she saw that he would set the 
crown upon his own head. How these men need 
look to themselves, your honour sees. It is come to 
this point, that Murray and Argyll will at no time be 
in Court together, that if need be, one may relieve or 
support the other. The Duke lives at home, and 
thinks himself happy if he may die in his bed. 

Darnley was now safely through his measles, thanks partly 
to the Queen's assiduity in nursing him, which led to the 
inevitable wagging of scandal-loving tongues. Shortly after 
his recovery Mary created him Earl of Ross, deferring the 
greater honour, as Throckmorton says in his letter of 
May 21, until she heard how Elizabeth accepted her 
proceedings : 

SIR NICHOLAS THROCKMORTON TO QUEEN 
ELIZABETH. 

[Scottish Calendar, Vol. II.] 

Edinburgh, May 21, 1565. 

. . . About 2 p.m. Lords Erskine and Ruthven, 
two of her privy council, came and accompanied me 
to the Queen, whom I found in the castle, accom- 
panied by the Duke of Chatelherault, the Earls of 
Argyll, Murray, Morton, Atholl, Glencairn and other 
Earls and Barons, so that it appeared few nobles 
were absent. I delivered your Majesty's letter, and 
under your instructions set forth at good length your 



376 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

misliking and disallowance of her hasty proceeding 
with the Lord Darnley, as well for the matter as for 
the manner, wherein she erred by unadvisedness and 
rashness : and the said Lord Darnley and his parents 
had failed of their duties by their arrogant and 
presumptuous attempts to enterprise such matter 
. . . without making your Majesty privy thereunto, 
being your subjects. The Queen answered that she 
had not failed on her behalf to communicate the 
matter to your Majesty in time (that was to say) as 
soon as she was resolved of the man and the matter 
— for other promise she never made any but to 
communicate unto your Majesty the person whom 
she would like to choose. And as to your misliking 
it, she marvelled not a little, because she did but use 
her choice according to your Majesty's prescription, 
fortifying her saying and doings by your Majesty's 
mind declared not long ago by Mr. Randolph to this 
effect unto her, as she alleged : that is to say, what 
time she did advertise your Majesty of the motion 
made unto her of Charles Duke of Austria (your 
Majesty dissuading her from that match, and from 
any of the Emperor's house, and likewise from the 
house of France and Spain,) you were contented 
(that those houses only excepted) she might take her 
choice of any person within the realms of England 
and Scotland or in any other country ; and because 
she thought none might be more agreeable to your 
Majesty and the realm of England, and likewise to 
her subjects and the realm of Scotland, than the 
Lord Darnley (he being your Majesty's kinsman and 
hers, and participating of the English and Scottish 
blood,) she did with the less preciseness proceed so 
far forward in this matter as she had done. 

Thereupon I replied and impugned her sayings by 
the very words of Randolph's commission — containing 
these three articles, first for her own contentment ; 
second the allowance of her people ; and third that 
the choice be such as the straight amity betwixt us 
not only for our own persons, but also for our nation, 



THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 377 

may be continued and not dissolved nor diminished. 
Proving to her by many and probable arguments, 
that Lord Darnley did in no part satisfy the contents 
of that liberal permission whereon she chiefly 
grounded herself to have your allowance. About 
this we spent a long time, and had sundry disputes, 
which I omit to declare till my access to your 
Majesty ; as also my other negotiations with this 
Queen and her council, severally and together four 
sundry times. 

Meantime that your Majesty may consider of the 
matter in good hour, and so direct your counsels and 
proceedings — it may please you to understand that 
this Queen is so far passed in this matter with 
Darnley as it is irrevocable, and no place left to 
dissolve the same by persuasion or reasonable means, 
otherwise than by violence, albeit the matter is not 
yet consummated, neither shall be (as she hath willed 
me to ascertain your Majesty) these three months, in 
which time she will use all means to procure your 
acceptance, and leave nothing undone to win your 
favour. She means shortly to send one (not 
Lethington, who is not presently in best terms with 
her) to treat with your Majesty therein. Darnley 
received the honours before specified after my 
audience the 15th instant (the creation of Duke of 
Albany only excepted) the conferring of which 
honour, the Queen at my leave-taking on the 19th 
promised to defer till she heard how you accepted her 
proceedings and answer to my legation. Yet I find 
her so captivated either by love or cunning (or rather 
to say truly by boasting or folly) that she is not able 
to keep promise with herself, and therefore not most 
able to keep promise with your Majesty in these 
matters. The day before my departing (which was 
the 18th) she made me dine at her own table alone : 
Randolph, with the Duke and other nobility, in 
another chamber. And after I had taken leave, she 
sent Lethington to my lodging with my dispatch, 
who brought me in present from her a chain of gold 



378 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

weighing fifty ounces. I do well perceive it is in 
your Majesty's power either to dissolve this matter 
betwixt her and Darnley (if you like to use your 
power) as I shall declare at my coming : or it rests 
at your pleasure to end it more amiably with such 
conditions as may be to your honour, surety and 
felicity. 

How completely Mary's infatuation seemed to change her 
and what airs and arrogance Darnley himself assumed with 
all these exalted honours thrust upon him, may be seen 
from the letter which Randolph wrote to Leicester on the 
same day. In its unaffected pity the letter also shows how 
the resident English Ambassador — more susceptible than 
Throckmorton — had yielded to the spell of Mary's soft 
enchantment : 

THOMAS RANDOLPH TO THE EARL OF LEICESTER. 

[Scottish Calendar, Vol. II.] 

Edinburgh, May 21, 1565. 

I know not how to utter what I conceive of the 
pitiful and lamentable estate of this poor Queen, 
whom ever before I esteemed so worthy, so wise, 
so honourable in all her doings : and at this present 
do find so altered with affection towards the Lord 
Darnley that she hath brought her honour in 
question, her estate in hazard, her country to be 
torn in pieces ! I see also the amity between the 
countries like to be dissolved, and great mischiefs 
like to ensue. To whom this may chiefly be imputed, 
what crafty subtlety or devilish device hath brought 
this to pass, I know not, but woe worth the time ! 
(and so shall both England and Scotland say) that 
ever the Lord Darnley did set his foot in this country. 
This Queen in her love is so transported, and he 
grown so proud, that to all honest men he is 
intolerable, and almost forgetful of his duty to her 
already, that has adventured so much for his sake. 
What shall become of her, or what life with him 
she shall lead, that already taketh so much upon 




[Pht.io, W. E. Gray 
LORD DARNLEY, WITH HIS YOUNGER BROTHER 
After the painting in His Majesty's collection at Holyrood Palace 



THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 379 

him as to control and command her, I leave it to 
others to think ! What shall be judged of him that 
for bringing a message from the Queen, that was to 
his discontentment, would with his dagger have slain 
the messenger : so little he yielded to her desire, 
so bold he was at the first with one of her coun- 
cillors ; yea, with him that most favoured his cause, 
and was the chief worker of that which passed 
between them ! These things my lord do move me 
much to lament her case ; this is it that may move 
any man to pity that ever saw her ; that ever loved 
her ; but most of all I am sorry to see so good 
opportunity to unite these realms lost, to the great 
hurt and hindrance of Christ's true religion, and 
undoing of a great number of honest and godly men 
here that know not what to do either for themselves 
or their country. What to judge of his coming home, 
many men know not, but the most part are persuaded 
that in the sending of him there is other meaning 
than there was in outward show. It is also believed 
that ye may be easily entreated to find it good, what 
show or face soever you make to the contrary ; and 
this among some of them hath been openly said 
that you do rather menace us with words, than 
mislike it in your hearts. Of this also I may assure 
your Lordship, that if this course of theirs be not 
stayed that they intend to take, I believe that within 
short time they will have more friends to take their 
part than we can imagine in these doubtful times to 
withstand them. They say we menace them with 
words, but they have in this quarrel to charge us 
with Spain, not finding themselves so destitute but 
that they have friends also in France, but many 
more in England than ye think of, and thereupon 
so embolden themselves that what ye say or do 
I see small account that they make thereof. She 
gathereth also so much advantage of the Queen my 
mistress's manner of dealing with her, that plainly 
she hath said that now she findeth that there was 
another mind than her words purporteth, for other- 



380 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

wise she would have dealt in other sort than she 
hath done. 

Darnley's conduct naturally made him a host of enemies, 
to whom Mary's love for such a man became inscrutable. 
" The saying is," wrote Randolph, who honestly believed 
it to be true, " that surely she is bewitched." After 
Throckmorton had returned, well rewarded, but unable to 
dissolve the match, Randolph wrote a letter describing how 
Mary's two most trusted advisers were now laid aside, also 
bringing on the scene the tragic figure of Riccio, or " David" 
as Randolph calls him — the Piedmontese who entered Mary's 
service as principal bass singer in the royal chapel. Riccio 
was appointed her French Secretary in 1564, and became 
increasingly useful — and pushful — in all her affairs : 

THOMAS RANDOLPH TO THE EARL OF LEICESTER. 
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. II.] 

Edinburgh, June 3, 1565. 

By this time your Lordship has heard how Sir 
Nicholas Throckmorton left all matters : and where 
there was some hope that time would have wrought 
another mind in this Queen, there is no alteration 
to be seen, but as great tokens of love daily to pass 
between them as ever did before ; which in her hath 
wrought so strange an effect that shame is laid 
aside, and all regard of that which chiefly pertaineth 
to princely honour removed out of sight. Her 
councillors now are those she liked worst : the 
nearest of her kin the farther from her heart : my 
Lord of Murray liveth where he list. Lethington 
has now both leave and time enough to make court 
to his mistress 1 : such favour he has won through 
his long travail and late favour he found amongst 
you ! David is he that now works all — chief secre- 
tary to the Queen, and only governor to her good 
man. The rumours here are wonderful ; men's 
talk very strange ; the hatred towards Darnley and 

1 Mary Fleming — one of the four Maries of the Queen's Court — 
whom he married in the following January. 



THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 381 

his house marvellously great, his pride intolerable, 
his words not to be borne but where no man dare 
speak against. He spares not also, in token of his 
manhood, to let some blows fly where he knows they 
will be taken. The passions and furies I hear say 
he will sometimes be in are strange to believe. 
What cause this people have to rejoice of this their 
worthy prince, I leave the world to think. When 
they have said and thought all they can, they find 
nothing but that God must send him a short end, or 
themselves a miserable life under such a government 
as this is like to be. What comfort can they look 
for at the Queen's Majesty's hand, seeing the most 
part are persuaded that to this end and purpose he 
was sent into this country ? I spare here to speak 
so much as I have heard, and knowing so little of 
the Queen's mind as I do, I know not what counsel 
or advice to give. I travail so long with words, 
that whatsoever I speak is counted but wind. To 
see so many in hazard of life, lands and goods, it is 
pity to think. To remedy this mischief, either he 
must be taken away, or those he hates so supported 
that what he intends for others may light upon himself ! 
A little now spent in the beginning yieldeth double 
fruit. What were it for her Majesty, if she list not 
to do it by force, with the expense of £3,000 or 
£4,000 to do with this country as she would ! It 
is worth the money to cut off the suspicion that 
men take of her Majesty, that she never liked any- 
thing in her life better than to see this Queen so 
meanly matched, and her country at this miserable 
point. She is determined to make a divorce with 
England, yet you shall not lack fair words till she 
can make a better party. She will speak France 
fair : what she may come by there I leave others to 
judge, but should it come to pass, as they say here, 
that you ally yourselves with Austria, I trow France 
will not refuse the old league with Scotland, poor 
as it is. Need forces them to fall into some man's 
hands or other, and when you might have had them, 



382 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

you drove so long time with them, that now ye are 
like to go without them and repent it too late ! I 
am sorry that I have lost my good hope, but most 
of all that your Lordship had foregone so good a 
fortune, where I am assured your life had been 
happy, and should have here found wherewith to 
have contented you, if it had been taken in time. 

She is now so much altered from what she lately 
was, that who now beholds her does not think her 
the same. Her Majesty is laid aside — her wits not 
what they were — her beauty another than it was ; 
her cheer and countenance changed into I wot not 
what. A woman more to be pitied than any that 
ever I saw — such a one now as neither her own 
regard, nor she takes count of any that is virtuous 
or good. How loath I am thus to write, or what 
grief I have thus to think, your lordship may well 
conceive, of whom so many times and oft my chief 
delight hath been always to set forth her worthy 
praise equal to any that ever I saw — she only 
excepted to whom I am most bound in duty to 
honour and serve. I doubt not I shall easily avoid 
the note of inconstancy when I have so many 
witnesses to testify my words to be true, and I 
protest before God I never wrote thing with worse 
will in my life than presently I do this, and but to 
your Lordship's self alone, I wish that it were not 
known to creature alive, and would God that what 
imperfections soever be in her, had before been 
known, than now to burst out to so great a grief 
of many men's hearts as now it doth. From whence 
this proceedeth I know not what to judge, and to 
believe the common report and constant rumour 
that cometh abroad, peradventure I should do her 
grace injury and deceive your Lordship in writing 
of an untruth. The saying is that surely she is 
bewitched, the parties, the persons, are named to 
be the doers — the tokens, the rings, the bracelets 
are found and daily worn that contain the sacred 
mysteries. Of these and other matters I could say 



THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 383 

more, but even now arrived this bearer, M. Mauvissiere 
whom I could not delay. 

Ruthven, whom Murray " hated for his sorceries," was 
probably one of the evil " parties " blamed by Randolph 
for what he regarded as the devilish metamorphosis of 
Mary. It was Ruthven, too, who now, according to the 
same Ambassador, undertook, if she would follow his advice, 
and such as he would take to him, " to quiet both this 
country and make England content with reason " ; while 
Atholl openly declared that for all Elizabeth's seeming 
" to mislike this Queen's doings, she is well enough pleased 
therewith, and the sending hither Sir N. Throckmorton was 
but to threaten her." Ruthven was not the only Protestant 
leader now siding with Lennox and Mary against Murray, 
and so adding to the inextricable confusion of affairs. The 
rest of the Protestant Lords, fearful of increasing Catholic 
influence at Mary's Court, deemed it prudent to organise 
resistance, and " all such as are well minded against alteration 
of religion or the friendship of England " were assured by 
Elizabeth that she would " concur and assist them therein." l 
She also sent letters of recall both to Lennox and Darnley, 
but, as was probably expected, they declined to obey. 
Thereupon Elizabeth seized upon the less happily situated 
mother of Darnley, Lady Lennox, who had been restricted 
since April to her rooms at Westminster Palace, and was 
now committed to the Tower. This was on the eve of the 
arrival of afresh Ambassador from Mary — James Hay of Bal- 
merino, ostensibly to conciliate Elizabeth as far as possible 
but in reality to discover from the Spanish Ambassador 
whether any definite promise of support had yet arrived from 
Philip. The Spanish King's favourable reply (see pp. 373 — 4) 
had just arrived and Mary's Ambassador was naturally 
highly delighted with it : 

GUZMAN DE SILVA TO PHILIP II. 
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.] 

London, June 25, 1565. 
The Scottish Ambassador came to see me this 
afternoon, as he had promised. He told me he had 
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. II., p. 175. 



384 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

conversed with the Queen the day before yesterday, 
and yesterday again, on the subject of the marriage 
of his Queen with Lord Darnley, and that she took it 
in such a way that she flew into a rage directly the 
subject was introduced. She said she was greatly 
displeased at the match, because it had been arranged 
without her consent, and for other reasons, and he 
asked her that these reasons might be handed to him 
in writing, that he might show them to his Queen. 
If she would not have this done he begged that she 
would appoint some persons to represent her and 
discuss the matter on the frontiers ; but she refused 
both requests. He asked permission to visit Lady 
Margaret and hand her a letter which he had from 
the Queen ' for her, and another from Lady 
Margaret's husband, to which the Queen replied 
that she was greatly astonished that the Queen 
of Scotland should think she would allow Lady 
Margaret to receive visits, seeing that she was 
imprisoned for so grave a crime. When she was in 
prison before she was let out on her solemn oath that 
she would not allow her son to marry without her 
(Elizabeth's) consent, and she had deceived her. 
The letters, she said, might be handed to her, but 
she (the Queen) must see them first. He asked 
permission to hand to her Majesty a letter from the 
Earl of Lennox, but she refused to receive it, saying 
that she would not accept letters from a traitor, as 
she should very soon proclaim him to be, and his son 
as well. On this the Ambassador said to her that 
there was nothing more for him to do but to depart. 
He is to have an audience at Greenwich to-morrow, 
and will let me know what passes. He asked me 
whether I had received a reply from your Majesty with 
respect to the matter that I discussed with Lething- 
ton, and I gave it to him in accordance with your 
Majesty's commands. He appeared highly delighted 
with it, and said that his Queen desired nothing so 
much as that your Majesty should take her under 
your protection, and that she should follow your 



THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 385 

Majesty's orders in all things without swerving a 
hair's breadth from them. I urged him to endeavour 
to get his Queen to manage her affairs prudently, 
and not to strike until a good opportunity presented 
itself, and pointed out to him that the declaration 
respecting the succession should not be pressed unless 
they saw they were going to have their way. He 
approved of this. 

Balmerino, as he afterwards confided to Guzman, found 
Elizabeth somewhat mollified the next day, " but he did not 
know whether it was a feint." Twenty-four hours afterwards 
he was hurrying back to Edinburgh with the eagerly-awaited 
news from Spain. Randolph found him on his arrival on 
July 6, "very ill at ease and melancholy for the evil success 
of his long journey." But three days later, according to 
Elizabeth's Ambassador, Mary and Darnley were secretly 
married at Holyrood, " and went to their bed at the Lord 
Seton's house." * Whatever truth there may have been in 
this story the banns for the public wedding were published 
on the 22nd, on which day Darnley was also created Duke 
of Albany. The ceremony itself took place in the Chapel 
Royal of Holyrood a week later, after the bridegroom had 
been proclaimed as King. Father Pollen's " Papal Negotia- 
tions," a work which throws much light on the subject, proves 
that the couple did not wait even for the expected dispensation 
from Rome necessary for their marriage as cousins. This, it 
seems, they could not have received for several months. 
For the only detailed description of the " manner of the 
marriage " we are indebted to the indispensable Randolph : 

THOMAS RANDOLPH TO THE EARL OF LEICESTER. 

[Wright's "Queen Elizabeth and her Times."] 

Edinburgh, July 31, 1565. 

I doubt not but your Lordship hath heard by such 
information as I have given from hence, what the 
present state of this country is — how this Queen is 
now become a married wife, and her husband, the 

1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. II., p. 181. 
E.M.S. C C 



386 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

self-same day of his marriage, made a King. In their 
desires hitherto they have found so much to their 
contents, that if the rest succeed and prosper accord- 
ingly, they may think themselves much happier than 
there is appearance that they shall be. So many 
discontented minds, so much misliking of the subjects 
to have these matters thus ordered in this sort to be 
brought to pass, I never heard of any marriage. So 
little comfort as men do take, was never seen at any 
time where men should have showed themselves to 
rejoice, if that consideration of her own honour, and 
of her country, had been had as appertained in so 
weighty a case. Thus they fear the overthrow of 
religion, the breach of amity with the Queen's 
Majesty, destruction of as many of the nobility as she 
hath misliking of, or that he pick a quarrel unto. 

To see all these inconveniences approaching there 
are good numbers that may sooner lament with them- 
selves and complain to their neighbours, than able to 
find remedy to help them. Some attempt with all 
force they have, but are too weak to do any good. 
What is required other ways, what means there is 
made, your Lordship knoweth, what will be answered, 
or what will be therein, we are in a great doubt, and 
though your intent be never so good unto us, yet we 
so much fear your delay, that our ruin shall prevent 
your support. When council is once taken, nothing 
is so needful as speedy execution ; upon this we 
wholly depend. In her Majesty's hands it standeth 
to save our lives or to suffer us to perish. 

Greater honour her Majesty cannot have than in 
that which lieth in her power to do for us. The sums 
are not great ; the numbers of men are not many that 
we desire ; money will daily be found, though this 
will be some charge ; men grow daily, though at this 
time I think her Majesty shall lose but few. Her 
friends here being once taken away, where will her 
Majesty find the like ? I speak least of that which I 
think is most earnestly intended by this Queen and 
her husband, when by him it was lately said that he 



THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 387 

cared more for the Papists in England than he did 
for the Protestants in Scotland. If therefore his hope 
be so great in the Papists of England, what may your 
Lordship believe what he thinketh of the Protestants 
there : for his birth, for his nurture, for the honour 
he hath to be of kin to the Queen, my mistress, if in 
preferring those that are the Queen's Majesty's worst 
subjects, to those that are her best, he declareth what 
mind he beareth to the Queen's Majesty's self, any 
man may say that it is slenderly awarded, and his 
duty evil forgotten. He would now seem to be 
indifferent to both the religions ; she to use her Mass, 
and he to come sometimes to the preaching. 

They were married with all the solemnities of the 
popish time, saving that he heard not the Mass. His 
speech and talk argueth his mind, and yet would he 
fain seem to the world that he were of some religion. 
His words to all men against whom he conceiveth 
any displeasure, how unjust soever it be, are so proud 
and spiteful, that rather he seemeth a monarch of the 
world than he that not long since we have seen and 
known as the Lord Darnley. He looketh now for 
revenue of many that have little will to give it him, 
and some there are that do give it that think him 
little worthy of it. 

All honour that may be attributed unto any man by 
a wife, he hath it wholly and fully ; all praise that 
may be spoken of him he lacketh not from herself; all 
dignities that she can endow him with are already 
given and granted. No man pleaseth her that con- 
tenteth not him, and what may I say more. She hath 
given over unto him her whole will, to be ruled and 
guided as himself best liketh. She can as much 
prevail with him in any thing that is against his will, 
as your Lordship may with me to persuade that I 
should hang myself. This last dignity out of hand 
to have him proclaimed King, she would have had it 
deferred until it were agreed by Parliament, or he had 
been himself of twenty-one years of age, that things 
done in his name might have the better authority. 

c c 2 



388 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

He would, in no case have it deferred one day, and 
either then or never. Whereupon this doubt is risen 
among our men of law, whether she being clad with 
a husband, and her husband not twenty-one years, 
anything without Parliament can be of strength that 
is done between them. Upon Saturday at afternoon 
these matters were long in debating, and before they 
were well resolved upon, at nine hours at night, by 
three heralds at sound of the trumpet, he was pro- 
claimed King. This was the night before the 
marriage. This day, Monday, at twelve of the clock, 
the Lords, all that were in this town, were present at 
the proclaiming of him again, when no man said so 
much as " Amen," saving his father, that cried out 
aloud, " God save his Grace ! " 

The manner of the marriage was in this sort. 
Upon Sunday, in the morning, between five and six, 
she was conveyed by divers of her nobles to the 
chapel. She had upon her back the great mourning 
gown of black, with the great wide mourning hood, not 
unlike unto that she wore the doleful day of the burial 
of her husband. She was led unto the chapel by the 
Earls of Lennox and Atholl, and there she was left 
until her husband came, who also was conveyed by 
the same lords. The ministers, two priests, did there 
receive them. The banns were asked the third time, 
and an instrument taken by a notary that no man 
said against them, or alleged any cause why the 
marriage might not proceed. The words were 
spoken, the rings, which were three — the middle a 
rich diamond — were put upon her finger, they knelt 
together, and many prayers were said over them. She 
carrieth out the . . . and he taketh a kiss and 
leaveth her there and went to her chamber, whither 
in a space she followeth, and there being required, 
according to the solemnity, to cast off her care, and 
lay aside those sorrowful garments, and give herself 
to a pleasanter life. After some pretty refusal, more 
I believe for manner sake than grief of heart, she 
suffereth them that stood by, every man that could 



THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 389 

approach, to take out a pin, and so being committed 
unto her ladies, changed her garments, but went not 
to bed, to signify unto the world that it was no lust 
moved them to marry, but only the necessity of her 
country, not if she will to leave it destitute of an heir. 
Suspicious men, or such as are given of all things to 
make the worst, would that it should be believed that 
they knew each other before that they came there. 
I would not your Lordship should so believe ; the 
likelihoods are so great to the contrary that if it were 
possible to see such an act done, I would not believe 
it. After the marriage followeth commonly cheer 
and dancing. To their dinner they were conveyed 
by the whole nobles. The trumpets sound, a largess 
cried, and money thrown about the house in great 
abundance to such as were happy to get any part. 
They dine both at one table upon the upper hand. 
There serve these Earls — Atholl, sewer, Morton, 
carver, Crawford, cupbearer. These serve him in 
like offices — Earls Eglinton, Cassillis, and Glencairn. 
After dinner they dance awhile, and retire themselves 
till the hour of supper, and as they dine so do they 
sup. Some dancing there was, and so they go to bed. 

Of all this that I have written to your Lordship, I 
am not oculatus testis, but of the verity your Lordship 
shall not need to doubt, howsoever I came by it. I 
was sent for to have been at the supper, but like a 
churlish or discourteous carl, I refused to be there, 
and yet that which your Lordship may think might 
move me much to have had the sight of my mistress, 
of whom those eighteen days by just account I got not 
a sight. . . . 

Two things I had almost forgotten — the one was, 
to honour the feast the Lord Erskine was made Earl 
of Mar, and many made knights that never showed 
any great token of their vassalage. The other is 
that the Lord St. John had his office of Chief 
Chamberlain taken from him, and it was given to the 
Lord Fleming, now in principal credit with our new 
King. 



390 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

With the Darnley marriage the tragedy of Mary Stuart 
quickens at once. All the leading actors were now gathered or 
gathering, for Bothwell was to be summoned by the Queen to 
help her against her rebellious Lords. Yet there was scarce 
one among them all in whom she could implicitly trust. 
Had Darnley been but worthy he might have saved Mary 
from her doom, as well as from herself. For there can be 
little doubt that the drama of Mary Stuart was a drama of 
sex as well as of politics : that Mary's downfall had some 
irresistible psychological connexion with the sudden unloosing 
of pent-up passions. Not that Mary was as licentious as her 
severest critics would have us believe. She had passed 
through the vicious Court of France without incurring a 
single word of reproach, and remained similarly blameless 
during her later years in England, when she was still free 
enough, had she been so minded, to give the scandal- 
mongers plenty to talk about. It was Mary's fate never 
to be allowed to develop on natural lines. She was little 
more than fifteen, be it remembered, when married to 
the delicate Dauphin of France, who was fully a year her 
junior, and she was still in her teens when left a widow in. 
1560. Darnley, apparently, caught her fancy at the psycho- 
logical moment five years later, and was ill-bred and foolish 
enough to turn her love — if such it could be called, though 
it was not to be compared with the overwhelming passion 
which she presently wasted on Bothwell — to scorn and 
loathing. That, however, carries us beyond our period, and 
the scope of the present book, which leaves the hapless 
young Queen at the turning-point in her tragic career, 
having all unconsciously taken the first step leading irre- 
vocably to the edge of the precipice over which she was so 
soon to stumble to ruin and shame. 



INDEX 



Abel, John, letter from, 296 — 7 
Aerchot, Duchess of, 368 
Alba, Duke of, 17, 54, 64, 81, 291, 
362, 374. Letters to, 17 — 9, 
230—1 
Alencon, Duke of, 8 
Alen, Francis, letter from, 139 
Allen, Bishop of Rochester, 40, 

248 
Amboise, Tumult of, 102 — 3 ; 

Edict of, 261 
Anne Boleyn, Queen, 301 
Appleyard, John, 145, 148 — 50 
Argyll, Bishop of, 222 
Argyll, Earl of, 91 — 2, 94, 375 
Arran, Earl of, proposed mar- 
riage with Elizabeth, 36, 
48, 136 — 7 ; in danger in 
France, 36 — 7 ; escapes to 
Zurich, 37 ; reaches England, 

47 ; tendency to insanity, 

48 ; his zeal for Elizabeth, 
48 ; goes north as " M. de. 
Beaufort," 49, 68 ; wins 
over Ms father to the Scot- 
tish reformers, 68 ; ultima- 
tum to Mary of Guise, 68 — 
9 ; sends letters to Eliza- 
beth, Cecil, and Sadler, 72 — 
3 ; challenged to single 
combat by Bothwell, 76 ; 
Elizabeth refuses proposed 
marriage with, 138, 184 ; 
Elizabeth writes to Francis 
II. in favour of, 151 ; pro- 
posed marriage with Mary 
Stuart, 184, 210 — n, 272 ; 
welcomes Mary Stuart, 205 ; 
his insanity and accusation 
of Bothwell, 236, 255 ; Mary 
Stuart's hatred of, 273 

Arras, Bishop of, 54, 62, 174, 269 
Arundel, Earl of, 12, 27, 48, 53, 

63 — 4, 209, 250, 366 
Ascham, Roger, 222. Letter 

from, 223 — 6 



Atholl, Earl of, 357, 375, 383, 

388—9 
Ayala, Don Juan de, note, p. 30, 

38 

Bacon, Sir Nicholas, 17, 309 

Balnaves, Henry, 89 

Barbaro, Marc' Antonio, letters 
from, 293 — 6 

Barlow, Bishop of Chichester, 32, 
40 

Bavaria, Duke of, 124 

Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow, 
retires to Paris as Scottish 
Ambassador, on the death 
of Mary of Guise, 327. 
Letters to, 327 — 8, 335 — 6 

Beaton, Mary, 204, 337, 344 note 

Bedford, Earl of, 17, 23, 48, 62, 
64, 168, 175, 209, 247, 308, 
318—9, 330, 336, 347—8, 

35 2 —3 
Berwick, Treaty of, 94 
Blount, Thomas, 143, 149 — 50. 

Letters to, 144 — 5 ; letter 

from, 145 — 8 
Bonner, Edmund, Bishop of 

London, 31 — 2, 84 — 5. 

Letter from, 82 — 3 
Bothwell, Earl of, see Hepburn, 

James. 
Bourne, Gilbert, Bishop, Bishop 

of Bath and Wells, 85. 

Letter from, 82 — 3 
Brandon, Charles, Duke of Suf- 
folk, note, p. 170 
Brantome, 204, note, p. 269 
Briquemault, Sieur de, 260, 285 
Buchanan, note, p. 238 
Bullinger, Henry, 138. Letters 

to, 19 — 20, 238 — 40, 296 — 7 

Calais, loss of, 52, 106, 181 ; 
restoration demanded, 130 
— 1, 228 ; Cecil withdraws 



392 



INDEX 



Calais — continued. 

demand for restoration, 132 ; 
Elizabeth's hopes to re- 
cover, 227 — 8 ; Philip II. 's 
rumoured aspirations to, 
228 ; restoration of pro- 
mised by Huguenots, 242 — 
3 ; Elizabeth's claim to, 
243 ; House of Guise and 
loss of, 249 ; Havre held as 
security for, 243, 257, 285 — 
6 ; Conde offers restoration 
of, 284 ; France declines to 
surrender, 285 — 6 ; Mary 
Stuart and restoration of, 

340 

Carew, Sir Peter, 120 — 1 

Carlos, Don, son of Philip II., 
Catherine de' Medici's plans 
for marriage to Margaret of 
Valois, 183 ; proposed suitor 
to Mary Queen of Scots, 183, 
270, 273 — 6 ; approved by 
Scottish nobles, 276, 290 ; 
approval of in England, 278 ; 
Philip II. 's attitude to- 
wards, 286 — 8, 291, 369 — 70 ; 
Elizabeth's protest against, 
289 ; negotiations broken 
off, 316 ; Elizabeth hints at 
marriage with Don Carlos, 
311, 315, 365 ; his tendency 
to insanity, 358 ; negotia- 
tions for Mary Stuart match 
reopened, 368 

Casimir, Duke Hans, note, p. 8, 
302 — 3 

Cassillis, Earl of, 389 

Castelnau, Michael, see Mau- 
vissiere, M. 

Cateau-Cambresis, Treaty of, 2, 

25. 37. 5°. 130. 284—5 
Catherine de' Medici, consoles 
Mary Stuart, 115 ; anxiety 
for Francis II. 's health, 158 ; 
takes up government of 
France on accession of her 
son Charles IX., 161 ; Eliza- 
beth's advice to regarding 
the revived Council of Trent, 
175 ; desires to avoid return 
to power of House of Guise, 
183 ; wishes for marriage 
between Don Carlos and 
Margaret of Valois, 183 — 4 ; 
favours marriage of Mary 



Stuart with Earl of Arran, 
184 ; embarks on first 
religious war in France, 228 ; 
failure of Elizabeth's en- 
deavour to mediate, 229 ; 
letter to Elizabeth, 246 ; 
publishes Edict of Amboise 
and concludes religious war, 
261 ; fears marriage of Mary 
Stuart to Don Carlos, 274 ; 
unfavourable to Mary 
Stuart's marriage to Charles 
IX., 275, 370 ; disregard of 
Mary Stuart, 279, 368 — 9 ; 
friendship with Conde and 
Coligny, 279 ; offers to 
renew Treaty of Cambray 
for restoration of Calais, 
284 ; at Rouen, 293 ; joy at 
the surrender of Havre, 294 ; 
invitation to Admiral Clin- 
ton, 296 ; on bad terms 
with Scotland, 326 ; favours 
scheme for marrying her son 
Charles to Elizabeth, 326, 
366 ; Mary Stuart sends 
Beaton to, 335 ; conference 
with Queen of Spain at 
Bayonne, 362 

Catherine, Lady Willoughby 
d'Eresby.Duchess of Suffolk, 
170 and note 

Catherine Parr, Queen, note, p. 

323 

Cavalcanti, Guido, 168 

Cecil, Elizabeth, 316 

Cecil, William, Lord Burghley, 
addresses Commons, 5 ; 
character and religion of, 6, 
223 ; responsible for come- 
dies caricaturing Philip II., 
10; his power, 17; dis- 
cusses religious changes with 
Feria, 21 ; discusses Eliza- 
beth's marriage plans with 
Quadra, 22 — 3, 175 — 7 ; pro- 
mises support to Austrian 
match, 59 — 60 ; policy in 
Scotland, 35, 80 ; sends 
Randolph to Arran's aid, 
37 ; reported withholding 
of letters from Knox to Eliza- 
beth 41 ; foils Spanish plot, 
45 ; favours Arran's suit, 48, 
59 ; difficulties of position, 
60, 62, 119, 263 — 5, 331 ; 



INDEX 



393 



Cecil, William — continued. 

Throckmorton's advice to, 
1 02 — 3 ; negotiations in 
Scotland, 124 — 33 ; French 
policy of, 127, 242 — 3, 249 — 
50 ; advice to Elizabeth, 128 
— 9 ; discredited and abused, 
135, 141 ; restored to favour, 
136, 209 ; interviews with 
Quadra, 141 — 3, 312 ; rela- 
tions with Dudley, 148, 209, 
312 — 3, 318, 325 ; snubs 
Throckmorton, 162 — 3 ; 

favours marriage suit of 
King of Sweden, 163 ; de- 
ceives Quadra, 178 ; his 
" Minutes for the Queen's 
person," 191 ; Lethington's 
scorn of, 194 ; unpopularity 
of, 210, 309, 325 ; fears for 
Elizabeth's safety, 214 — 5 ; 
again out of favour, his 
lament thereon, 217 — 9; his 
learning and statecraft, 223 ; 
summoned on Elizabeth's- 
illness, 246 ; fears on dis- 
asters in France, 258, 263 ; 
Cecil's fast days, note, p. 265 ; 
rumoured plans for succes- 
sion, 275, 281 ; receives 
news of surrender of 
Havre, 296 ; relations with 
Catherine and Lord Grey, 
297 — 300 ; relations with 
Smith and Throckmorton, 
303 — 6 ; connexion with 
Hales's book, 309 ; enmity 
towards Catholic party and 
Phi Up II., 313 ; honoured 
by Elizabeth, 316 ; plans 
for Mary Stuart's marriage, 
330 — 1 ; anxiety for Eliza- 
beth's marriage, 331 ; De 
Silva's opinion of, 332 — 3. 
Letters to, 35 — 7, 67 — 8, 
72 — 6, 112 — 3, 148 — 9, 161 
— 2, 205 — 7, 212 — 3, 221 — 2 
228 — 9, 236 — 8, 250 — 5, 267 
—70, 298—300, 306 — 7, 334, 
344—5. 347—8, 359—6i, 
374 — 5- Letters from, 80 — 
1, 119 — 20, 124 — 5, 126 — 
33, 188—9, 194, 217—9, 
242 — 4, 263—5, 270, 304—6, 
308—9 

Chaloner, Sir Thomas, 21, 44, 67, 



189. Letters from, 44 — 5, 
67—8 
Chamberlain, Sir Thomas, 189. 

Letter to, 154 — 7 
Charles V., the Emperor, 311 
Charles IX., King of France, 159, 
161, 183, 203, 243, 246, 249, 
252, 259, 264, 272, 275, 281, 
285, 288, 293, 308, 326, 330, 
364—6, 368, 372—3 
Charles, Archduke, negotiations 
for marriage with Elizabeth, 
21, 24—5, 48, 51—68, 136 ; 
aspersions on his intelligence 
23 ; proposals for visit to 
England, 54, 59, 60, 62, 65 
— 6 ; receives Elizabeth's 
portrait, 180 ; proposals for 
marriage to Mary Stuart, 
273 ; negotiations for, 277, 
288, 329 ; Scottish dis- 
approval of proposed mar- 
riage, 278, 290, 316 ; Eliza- 
beth's veto on, 289, 376 ; 
negotiations reopened for 
marriage with Elizabeth, 
302, 329, 368 
Chartres, Vidame de, 242, 260 
Chastelard, 267 — 9, 279, 280 
Chatelherault, first Duke of, 
abdicates regency of Scot- 
land in favour of Mary of 
Guise, 34 ; unkindness of, 
36 ; won over to Reformers' 
camp in Scotland by his son, 

68 ; ultimatum to Queen 
Regent of Scotland, 68 ; the 
Queen Regent demands dis- 
sociation with Scottish rebels, 

69 ; appointed President of 
Council of Scotland, 70 ; 
Queen Regent endeavours 
to discredit by forged letter 
to Francis II., 87 — 8 ; at 
Mary Stuart's homecoming, 
205 ; begs Mary Stuart to 
disbelieve Arran's charges 
against Bothwell, 255 ; 
Mary Stuart's enmity to- 
wards, 375 

Chatillon, see Coligny 
CMtillon, Madame de, see 

Coligny 
Clarence, George, Duke of, 241, 

283 
Claude, Duke d'Aumale, 204 



394 



INDEX 



Clinton, Admiral Lord Edward, 

250, 294—6 
Cobham, Lady, 210 
Cobham, Lord, 26, note, p. 323 
Cockburn, John, Laird of Ormis- 

ton, 73—6, 257 
Coligny, Admiral, 162, note, 

p. 232, 279—80 
Coligny, Madame de, 279 — 80 

and note 
Conde, Prince of, note, p. 132, 

228 — 9, 239, 244, 259 — 61, 

273, 279, 284 — 6, 303, 326 
Conde, Princess of, 258. Letter 

from, 258 — 60 ; letter to, 

260 — 1 
Cox, Bishop of Norwich, 32, 40 
Croft, Sir James, 36, 72, 76, 118, 

121, 193. Letters from, 

72—5 
Curosot, Madame de, see Coligny 



Dacre, Sir Thomas, 256 

Damville, M., 280, 285 

D'Andelot, M., 258, 261 

Darnley, Lord, see Stuart, 
Henry 

Denmark, King of, 365 

Dimock, John, 208, 209 

Dormer, Jane, see Feria, Coun- 
tess de 

Dormer, Lady Clarentius, 30 

Dormer, Sir William, 29 

D'Oyssel, M., 50, 72, 121, 125, 
189, 195, 197 — 8. Letter 
from, 76; letter to, 116 — 7 

Dreux, Huguenot defeat at, 
258 

Drury, Mr., 74 

Dudley, Ambrose, Earl of War- 
wick, created Earl of 
Warwick, 242 ; commands 
English expedition to assist 
Huguenots, 242, 243 ; sug- 
gested by Elizabeth as a 
possible husband for Mary 
Stuart, 276, 278 ; desperate 
position at Havre, 286 ; 
wounded, 294 ; surrenders 
Havre and embarks for 
England, 295 — 6. Letter 
to, 257 — 8 

Dudley, John, Duke of North- 
umberland, 12, 152, 242 



Dudley, Robert, Earl of Leicester, 
Elizabeth's love for and 
scandalous relations with, 
11 — 3, 16 — 7, 136, 161, 163, 
208, 247—8, 357, 365—6; 
rumoured intentions of 
marriage to Elizabeth, 13, 
140 — 1, 150 — 2 ; created 
Master of Horse, 14 ; diplo- 
macy regarding Austrian 
match and relations with his 
wife, 14, 15 ; relations with 
Pickering, 16, 64 ; relations 
with Philip II., 54, 65, 166, 
169, 178, 314, 316, 332 ; 
enmity of Duke of Norfolk 
to, 64—7, 135, 172; 
rumoured intention to poison 
his wife, 65, 142 ; suspected 
of murder of, 140, 143, 148 
— 50 ; favours Swedish 
match for Elizabeth, 65 ; 
accused of ruining country, 
93 ; Quadra's opinion of, 
93 ; undermines Cecil's in- 
fluence, 135, 141 ; sent into 
retirement, 148 ; restored 
to favour, 150, 153 ; inter- 
view with Jones, 151 ; the 
Queen's hesitation over his 
peerage, 153 ; rumoured 
secret marriage to Elizabeth, 
162, 235 ; marriage to the 
Queen seriously discussed, 
163 — 80 ; negotiations with 
Quadra, 168 — 9, 171 ; dis- 
liked by Protestant party, 
177 ; quarrel with Arundel, 
209 ; rumoured plot for his 
murder, 214 ; interest in 
Huguenot cause and Conde, 
229 ; failure to restore 
amity between Elizabeth 
and Philip, 230 ; attitude 
regarding Elizabeth's suc- 
cessor, 247 ; Elizabeth sug- 
gests his appointment as 
protector, 248 ; policy to- 
wards France, 248 ; pro- 
posed as suitor to Mary 
Stuart, 276 — 7, 306 — 7, 327, 
330 — I, 334 — 6, 341 — 4. 
348—57 ; welcomes Silva, 
312 ; enmity with Cecil, 
312 — 3, 325 ; negotiations 
with Silva, 313 — 4, 316 ; 



INDEX 



395 



Dudley, Robert — continued. 

interview with Melville, 318 ; 
created Earl of Leicester, 
319 ; friction over Mar- 
chioness of Northampton, 
323 ; Silva's impressions of, 
33 2 — 3 I dislikes idea of 
marrying Mary Stuart, 335, 
355 — 7 ; rumoured conniv- 
ance at Darnley marriage, 
358 ; entertains Elizabeth, 
361 — 3. Letters to, 145 — 8, 
159 — 60, 283 — 4, 341 — 4, 
346, 349—55." 378—83, 385 
— 90. Letters from, 144 — 
5, 148—9 

Dudley, Lady Robert, 13 — 14, 
65, 140, 142—7, 149, 152, 
164 — 5. Letter from, 15 

Dunblane, Bishop of, 222 



Edinburgh, raid on, 73 

Edinburgh, Treaty of, 129 — 31, 
134, 136, 138, 154, 156—7, 
186 — 7, 197, 217, 219 — 21 

Edward VI., 6, 19, 30, 32, 82, 
note, p. 127, note, p. 224 

Eglinton, Earl of, 389 

Elizabeth, Queen of England, 
her character and accession, 
1 ; origin of her quarrel with 
Mary Stuart, 2 ; French and 
Spanish designs against her 
throne, 3, 4, 44, 45 ; pro- 
posal of marriage from Eric 
of Sweden, 4 and note ; de- 
clines title of supremacy of 
Church, 5 ; disappoints 
reformers, 6 — 8, 31 — 2, 62, 
364 ; secret of objections to 
marriage, 8 ; discusses re- 
ligion and matrimony with 
Feria, 9 — 1 1 ; Archduke Fer- 
dinand's suit, 13 — 14 ; her 
early relations with Dudley, 
15 ; encourages Sir William 
Pickering, 15 — 16 ; ap- 
pointed " Only Supreme 
Governor," 17 — 20, 69 ; 
Archduke Charles intro- 
duced as suitor, 21 — 5 ; at 
Court festivities in honour 
of Cateau-Cambresis, 25 — 
31 ; Earl of Arran proposed 
as suitor, 34 — 6 ; secretly 



encourages revolt in Scot- 
land, 37 — 8, 45 — 7; en- 
courages Arran, 48 — 9 ; 
entertained by Arundel at 
Norwich, 48 ; deceives 
French Ambassador, 49 — 
51 ; diplomatic encourage- 
ment of various suitors, 51 
— 3. 63 — 4 ; plot to poison, 
53 ; encourages Archduke 
Charles, 54 — 61, 65 — 6 ; 
intimacy with Dudley, 60, 
67, 136, 140, 153, 161, 319, 
357, see also under Robert 
Dudley ; Scottish lords 
seek help from, 72 — 5 ; 
at the tournament, 77 — 8 ; 
interview with French Am- 
bassador, 77 — 9 ; temporises 
with Scottish rebels, 79 — 80 ; 
openly encourages Scottish 
revolt, 81, 94, 98, 103 ; 
deprives Catholic Bishops of 
their Sees, 82 — 5 ; French 
policy, 86 — 7 ; efforts to 
subdue Ireland, 92 ; pro- 
clamation to France, 98 — 
102 ; suspected of causing 
Tumult of Amboise, 102 — 3 ; 
interview with Glajon, 104 
— 5 ; protest of M. de Seurre 
to, 106 — 11 ; her answer to, 
in — 12 ; orders continu- 
ance of siege of Leith, 116 ; 
anger at failure of siege, 
119 — 20; renewed enthusi- 
asm for Scottish rebels, 120 
— 1 ; strengthens her navy, 
123 ; demands for restora- 
tion of Calais, 131, 286 ; 
abuses Cecil, 134 ; marriage 
problem renewed, 135 — 
9 ; declines the Earl of 
Arran, 138; encourages King 
of Sweden, 138 — 9, 207 ; sus- 
pected as accessory to Amy 
Robsart's murder, 140, 142, 
149 ; sends Dudley into 
retirement, 148 ; interview 
with R. T. Jones, 152 — 3 ; 
demands ratification of 
Treaty of Edinburgh, 156, 
168, 189 ; policy of pro- 
crastination in marriage 
schemes, 163, 263, 324, 329 
— 31, 368 ; negotiations 



396 



INDEX 



Elizabeth — continued. 

with heretics of France, 168, 
227 — 9 ; discusses marriage 
with Quadra, 169—70 ; in- 
censed against Norfolk, 172 ; 
endeavours to prevent Coun- 
cil of Trent, 175 ; refusal to 
receive Papal Nuncio, 178 ; 
at festivities on Feast of St. 
John, 179 — 80 ; her looks 
and high style of living, 
180 — 1 ; attitude towards 
Mary Stuart's return, 186 ; 
difficult position with regard 
to the succession question, 
191, 282, 310 ; distrusts 
Lady Catherine Grey and 
commits her to the Tower, 
193 ; alleged dropsical 
tendencies, 210 ; commits 
Lady Margaret Lennox to 
the custody of Sir Richard 
Sackville, 215 — 16; declara- 
tion of Scottish nobles to, 
217 ; discusses Treaty of 
Edinburgh withMary Stuart, 
219 ; proposals for and de- 
lays over meeting with Mary 
Stuart, 221, 235 — 6, 244, 
319 ; flattering portrait of, 
222 — 6 ; interview with 
Quadra, 232 — 4 ; exchange 
of jewels with Mary Stuart, 
note, pp. 238 — 9 ; decides to 
aid Conde, 239 ; concludes 
Treaty of Hampton with 
Huguenots, 242 ; sends 
army to France, 243; pro- 
fesses friendship to Mary 
Stuart, 245 — 6 ; develops 
smallpox, 246 — 8 ; suggests 
Dudley as protector during 
her illness, 248 ; commits 
Bothwell to the Tower, 256 ; 
holds Havre as security for 
Calais, 257 ; her reply to 
the Commons regarding 
marriage, 261 — 3 ; suggests 
Dudley as suitor to Mary 
Stuart, 276 — 7, 307, 319 ; 
interview with Lethmg- 
ton, 277 — 8 ; refusals to 
give up Havre or make 
peace, 284 — 6 ; negotiations 
with Mary Stuart regarding 
marriage and English suc- 



cession, 289 — 90, 306 — 7, 

327. 330—1. 334—5, 35°; 
surrender of Havre, 292 ; 
refuses petition of Lady 
Catherine Grey, 301 ; further 
matrimonial problems, 302 ; 
conclusion of Treaty of 
Troyes, 308 ; offended at 
John Hales 's book, 309 ; 
welcomes Silva to England, 
310 ; interviews with Silva, 
311 — 15, 324 — 6; restores 
Lady Lennox and Darnley 
to favour and stands god- 
mother to Cecil's daughter, 
316 ; uses Darnley as a 
pawn in Mary Stuart's mar- 
riage plans, 316, 358, 360 
— 1 ; at Cambridge, 317 ; 
coolness in relations with 
Mary Stuart, 317 ; friend- 
ship renewed, 318 ; inter- 
views with Melville, 318 — 
23 ; creates Dudley Earl of 
Leicester, 319 ; shows Mel- 
ville Dudley's picture, 320 ; 
asks him for comparison of 
Mary Stuart and herself, 
321 — 3 ; discusses religion 
with Silva, 325 ; attitude to 
French proposals of marriage 
326, 364 — 6 ; suspicions re- 
garding Darnley and his 
parents, 327 — 9 ; illness, 
332 ; professes leanings to- 
wards Catholicism, 333, 364 ; 
entertained by Leicester, 
361 — 3 ; fresh interview 
with Silva and discussion on 
her marriage, 364 — 6 ; anger 
at Mary Stuart's infatuation 
for Darnley, 366 ; forbids 
Darnley match and dis- 
pleasure at, 367, 375 — 6, 384; 
confiscates letters to Lady 
Lennox, 384. Letters to, 
41—5, 80—3, 126—33, 189 
— 93, 196 — 204, 219 — 21, 
258—60, 300—1, 375—8. 
Letters from, 46 — 7, 83 — -4, 
89 — 92, 120 — 1, 187 — 8, 195 
—6, 245—6, 257—8, 260—3 

Elizabeth of Valois, 3 

Eric IV., son of the King of 
Sweden, note, p. 4, note, p. 67, 
138 — 9, 140, 163, 188, 207 



INDEX 



397 



Eric, IV. — continued. 

IO, 222 3, 254, 282, 

365 

Erskine, Lord, 80, 114, 375, 389 



Ferdinand L, Emperor, 13, 21, 

23—4, 29, 53—4, 60—1, 63, 

68, 87, 124, 288, 302, 370 — 1. 

Letters to, 51 — 2, 55 — 9 

Ferdinand, Archduke, proposals 

for marriage with Elizabeth, 

11 — 14, 29 ; objections 

to marriage on religious 

grounds, 21, 22, 24 

Feria, Count de, 2, 3, 8, 12, 20 — 1, 

25, 30, 44—5, 61, 67, 92. 

Letters from, 3 — 6, 9 — 11, 

13 — 14, 16 — 17, 61 — 2 ; 

letters to, 62 — 4, 93 

Feria, Countess de, 29, 30 and 

notes, 166 
Ferrara, Duke of, 272 — 3, 290 
Finland, Duke of, son of the King 
of Sweden, 63, 65, 67, 77 — 8, 
13S 
Fleming, Dr. Hay, 33, 185 
Fleming, Lord, 389 
Fleming, Mary, 204, 380 
Flowerdew, Mr., letter to, 15 
Foix, Paul de, 273, 275, 326, 328, 

366 
Forster, Sir John, 348 
Foster, Anthony, 146 — 7, 149 
Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, 
daughter of Charles Brandon 
and Mary Tudor, 170 and 
note 
Francis II., King of France, 
pledge to preserve Scottish 
laws inviolate, 33 ; under 
the influence of House of 
Guise, 37, 45, 98 — 112 ; 
failure to help Catholic party 
in England, 38 — 9 ; adopts 
title of King of Scotland, 
40 ; complains of English 
aid to Scottish rebels, 47 ; 
purposes to invade England, 
51 — 2, 60, 233 ; authority 
upheld in Scotland, 69 — 70 ; 
Elizabeth expresses her wish 
for peace with, 86 ; forged 
letter from Mary of Guise, 
87 ; sends soldiers into Scot- 



land, 94, 105 ; assumes arms 
and title of England, 97, 233; 
Scottish rebellion against, 
106 — 8 ; ratifies treaty with 
Elizabeth, 106 — 8 ; Eliza- 
beth aids Scottish rebels 
against, 107 — 9 ; protest to 
Elizabeth, no — n ; Eliza- 
beth's reply, in — 12 ; gives 
authority to Mary of Guise 
at Scottish Conference, 122 ; 
refusal to ratify Treaty of 
Edinburgh, 134, 154—7 ', 
notified of the Earl of Arran's 
proposal for Elizabeth's 
hand, 136 — 8 ; illness of, 
158 ; death of, 159 ; Mary 
Stuart's grief at, 160 ; in- 
fluence of on the House of 
Guise, 161. Letters to, 77 
—9, 136—8 
Froude, J. A., 79, 95, 102, in, 
117, note, p. 132, 150, 194, 
228, note, p. 246, 266, 296, 
344, 347 



Gardiner, Bishop Stephen, 84 
Glajon, M. de, 94, 104 — 5, 109 — 

10, 133, 233. Letter to, 94 
Gordon, John, 250 
Granville, Cardinal de, 229, 369. 

Letter to, 229 — 30 
Glencairn, Earl of, 138, 155, 375, 

389 
Grindal, Edmund, Bishop of 

London, 32, 40, 85 
Grey, Henry, Marquess of Dorset 

and Duke of Suffolk, note, 

p. 170 
Grey, Lady Catherine, 44 — 5, 66, 

193 — 4- 209, 217, 247, 297, 

299, 301, note; p. 308, 309, 
372. Letters from, 299 — 301 

Grey, Lady Fiances, 209 

Grey, Lady Jane, 44 

Grey, Lord John of Pyrgo, 297 — 

300, 309. Letters from, 298 
— 300 

Grey, Lord John de Wilton, 88, 
98, 112 — 14, 116 — 21, 125. 
Letters from, 112 — 13, 118 
— 19. Letter to, 113 — 14 

Guise, Duke of, influence over 
Mary Stuart's early days, 



398 



INDEX 



Guise, Duke of — continued. 

33 ; ambitious policy of, 33 ; 
requested by Elizabeth to 
end French pretensions in 
Scotland and England, 100 
— 2 ; suspects Elizabeth of 
connexion with Tumult of 
Amboise, 103 ; repudiates 
Treaty of Edinburgh, 156 ; 
hopes based on help of Philip 
II., 161 ; Mary Stuart bids 
farewell, 204 ; responsible 
for Mary Stuart's advances 
to Elizabeth, 238 ; prevents 
interference of German 
princes in war, 238 ; en- 
deavours to persuade Eliza- 
beth of the righteousness of 
his war in France, 238 ; 
anger at Elizabeth's alliance 
with Prince of Conde, 239 ; 
Elizabeth foils designs of, 
239, 243 ; Cecil's enmity 
towards, 243, 249, 263 ; 
siege of Rouen, 257 ; 
assassinated at Orleans, 260 
— 1 ; Cecil glad at death of, 
263 ; endeavours for alliance 
between France and Scot- 
land, 269 ; death of, upsets 
Lethington's plans, 270 — 1 



Hales, John, 301, 308 — 9 
Hamilton, John, Archbishop of 

St. Andrews, 128 and note 
Hampton Court, Treaty of, 242 
Hastings, Lord, of Loughborough, 

241, 265 
Hay, James, of Balmerino, 383, 

385 

Henderson, T. F., 344 

Henry II., King of France, 
designs upon the English 
throne, 4, 33, 95 ; influence 
over Mary Stuart, 33, 37, 
202 ; disbandment of Earl 
of Arran's men-at-arms, 37 ; 
mortally wounded, 37 ; 
death of, 37 — 8 

Henry IV., King of Navarre and 
France, 161 

Henry VIII., 1, 6, 47—8, 86, 
note, p. 127, 138, 183, 193, 
216, note, p. 224, 240, 247 



Hepburn, James, Earl of Both- 
well, robs Laird of Ormiston, 
73. 75 — 6 ; supports Mary 
of Guise, 74 — 5 ; accused of 
plot against Mary Stuart, 
236 — 7 ; imprisoned at 
Edinburgh, 255 ; escape 
from piison and re-arrest in 
England, 255 ; sent to Tower 
by Elizabeth, 256 ; Throck- 
morton's opinion of, 256 ; 
Randolph's hatred of, 236 ; 
released by Elizabeth, 347 ; 
appointed Captain of King's 
Scottish Guard in France, 
347 ; returns to Scotland 
but fails to recover Maiy's 
favour, 347 ; in hiding at 
Haddington, 347 ; infamous 
slander of Mary, 347 ; Mary's 
anger at, 348 ; threatens 
Murray and Lethington, 348 ; 
summoned to Mary's aid 
against rebellious nobles, 
390 ; Mary's passion for, 390 

Herries, Baron, Master of Max- 
well, 89 

Hertford, Earl of, 193 — 4, 209, 

275, 297. 309 
Hethe, Nicolas, Archbishop of 
York, 84 — 5. Letter from, 
82—3 
Holstein, Duke of, 63, 123, 138 
Hopton, Sir Owen, 301 
Howard, Sir George, 118 — 9 
Huguenots, revolt of, 122 ; 
massacre of Vassy, 227 ; 
appeal to Elizabeth for help, 
227 ; England's help pro- 
mised on condition of restora- 
tion of Calais, 227, 242 ; 
massacre of, 228, 245 — 6 and 
note ; Elizabeth's interest in, 
228 — 9 ; Treaty of Hampton 
concluded, 242 ; Earl of 
Warwick dispatched ' to aid 
of, 242 — 3 ; origin of word, 
note, p. 246 ; dispatch of 
Poynings to aid of, 257 ; 
failure of Poynings' force 
against the Guise army at 
Rouen, 257 — 8 ; loss of 
Dreux, 258 ; Edict of Am- 
boise, 261 ; peace patched 
up with Catholic party, 284 ; 
combine with Catholic party 



INDEX 



399 



Huguenots — continued. 

to expel English from Havre, 

286 
Hume, Lord, 237 
Hume, Martin, 183 
Hunsdon, Lord, 77, 248, 308, 321, 

362 
Huntingdon, Earl of, 142 — 3 and 

note, 240, 241, 247, 275, 283. 

Letter from, 283 — 4 
Huntly, Earl of, 206, 250, 253, 

255 



James V., King of Scotland, 34, 
322 

Jewel, Dr., Bishop of Salisbury, 
6, 17, 19, 31, 79, note, p. 224, 
282, 292. Letters from, 6 — 
8, 31—2, 39—40, 238—40 

Jones, R. T., 127, 150. Letter 
from, 150 — 3 

Jonson, Ben, 8 



Kirkcaldy of Grange, 276 

Knollys, Henry, 244 

Knox, John, his " Blast of the 
Trumpet," 6 ; infuses fresh 
life into Scottish Reforma- 
tion, 31 ; campaign against 
Mary of Guise, 32 — 3, 39 — 
41 ; Elizabeth's hatred of, 
79 ; anxiety to propitiate 
Elizabeth, 192 ; accuses 
Mary Stuart of treachery to 
Elizabeth, 192 — 3 ; hatred 
of Mary, 192 — 3, 204, 207, 
253 — 5 .* suspicions regard- 
ing Mary's dealings with 
Huntly, 250 ; apologies to 
Cecil, 254 ; interviews with 
Mary Stuart, 205, 255 ; 
shocked by Mary Stuart's 
familiarities with Chastelard, 
267. Letters from, 41 — 5, 
70 — 2, 192 — 3, 212 — 3 



La Croc, 237 — 8 

Lang, Andrew, 204, 250, 280, 344, 
348—9, 353, 357 

Leith, French garrisons at, 68, 
70 ; siege of, 72 — 3, 76, 79 — 
80, 98, 114 — 22, 125 — 9 



Lennox, Earl of, 316 — 17, 327 — 
3i, 334. 345—6, 359, 3^9, 
372, 383—4, 388 

Lennox, Margaret, Countess of, 
authority on Elizabeth's 
alleged incapability of 
motherhood, 8 ; summoned 
to court by Elizabeth, 215 ; 
excluded from succession to 
English throne, 216; her 
ambitions, 216 ; handed 
over to custody of Sackvilles, 
216 ; supported by Catholic 
nobles of Scotland, 216 — 17 ; 
Spanish attempt to forward 
her claims, 232 ; restored to 
Elizabeth's favour, 316 ; 
Mary Stuart sends messages 
to, 318 ; Elizabeth congratu- 
lates on the restoration of 
her husband's estates, 329 ; 
negotiates with Elizabeth 
for Darnley's licence to join 
his father in Scotland, 329 ; 
professes attachment to 
Philip II., 329 ; Elizabeth's 
suspicions of, 329 ; Ran- 
dolph's opinion of, 334 ; 
sups with Elizabeth, 362 ; 
talks with Guzman of the 
marriage of her son to Mary 
Stuart, 367 ; again placed 
under arrest, 367 ; Philip's 
regard for, 372 ; committed 
to the Tower, 383 — 4. 
Letters to confiscated by 
Elizabeth, 384 

Lesley, John, Bishop of Ross, 
125, 184 — 5 

Lethington, Laird of, see Mait- 
land, William 

Livingstone, Mary, 204 

Longueville, Duke of, 37 

Lords of the Congregation, letter 
to Francis II., 136 — 8 

Lorraine, Cardinal of, influence 
on Mary Stuart, 33 ; inter- 
cepted letter from Mary of 
Guise, 88 ; requested by 
Elizabeth to end French 
pretensions in Scotland, 100 
— 2 ; suspects Elizabeth of 
connexion with Tumult of 
Amboise, 103 ; discusses 
affairs in England and Scot- 
land with the Venetian Am- 



400 



INDEX 



Lorraine — continued. 

bassador, 122 — 4; grief over 
death of Mary of Guise, 126 ; 
repudiates Treaty of Edin- 
burgh, 156 ; Mary Stuart 
bids farewell to, 204 ; repre- 
sentations to Emperor Fer- 
dinand regarding the mar- 
riage of Mary and the 
Archduke Charles, 288, 315, 
370 ; message from Mary, 
336 ; Bothwell's scandal 
concerning Mary Stuart 
and, 347 ; at Conference 
at Bayonne, 362 ; is in- 
structed by Catherine de' 
Medici with regard to mar- 
riage of Mary Stuart and 
Don Carlos, 370 ; helps to 
prevent marriage, 371 

Loughborough, Lord of, see 
Hastings, Lord 



Maitland, John, Duke of 

Lauderdale, note, p. 349 
Maitland, Professor, 17, 31, 143 
Maitland, William, Laird of 
Lethington, deserts Mary of 
Guise for her rebels, 138 ; 
his share in the signing of 
the Treaty of Edinburgh, 
138 ; joins deputation to 
Elizabeth, 138, 155 ; letter 
to Cecil respecting Mary 
Stuart quoted, 184 ; blames 
Cecil for permitting Mary 
Stuart's safe passage, 194 — 
5 ; at Mary's homecoming, 
205 ; rumoured relations 
with Cecil, 206 ; brings news 
to Elizabeth, 210 ; secretary 
to Mary, 210 ; ratification of 
peace and return to Scot- 
land, 211 ; supports Mary in 
opposing Knox, 211, 213 ; 
brings messages of courtesy 
from Mary to Elizabeth, 217, 
236 ; sends messenger to 
Duke of Guise, 264 ; accusa- 
tions against Chastelard and 
France, 267, 269 ; mission 
to Elizabeth as mediator, 
269, 270, 282 ; discusses the 
Spanish marriage with 
Quadra, 270 — 9, 286 — 7, 



289 ; carries message to 
Mary from Elizabeth, 289 
— 90 ; Elizabeth offers him 
Dudley match for Mary 
Stuart, 306 ; discusses the 
match with Mary, 307 ; 
indignant letter to Elizabeth, 
316 ; sent to Berwick, 318, 
330 — 6 ; approval of Dud- 
ley match, 334 ; Mary's 
assurances of friendship with 
Elizabeth to, 338 ; Ran- 
dolph confides in, 341 ; 
threatened by Bothwell, 
348 ; discusses Leicester 
match with Randolph, 351, 
353 ; refuses interview with 
Randolph, 352 ; Randolph's 
enmity towards, 355 ; hopes 
for arrangement of Leicester 
match, 355 ; Randolph's 
comments on, 360 — 1 ; deal- 
ings with Spanish Ambassa- 
dor, 368 — 73 ; returns to 
Scotland, 374 ; out of favour 
with Mary, 377, 380 ; courts 
Mary Fleming, 380 ; mar- 
riage to, note, p. 380. 
Letter from, 207 ; letter 
to, 185—6 
Mantua, Castellan of, letter to, 

27—31 
Mar, Earl of, 236, 389 
Margaret of Anjou, 184 
Martinengo, Abbe, 174 — 5 
Martyr, Peter, 37, 79, note, p. 224, 
282. Letters to, 6 — 8, 31 
— 2 
Mary of Guise, Queen Regent 
of Scotland, defiance of 
by Knox, 32 — 3 ; upholds 
ambitious policy of House of 
Guise, 33 ; assumes Regency, 
deposing Chatelherault, 34 ; 
Scottish lords revolt against, 
37 — 8 ; retires into garrison 
at Leith, 40 ; receives ultima- 
tum from Scottish lords, 68 ; 
illness of, 69 ; replies to 
Scottish lords demanding 
their dissociation with rebels, 
69 ; suspended from Re- 
gency, 69 — 70 ; fortifies 
Leith, 72 ; supported by 
Bothwell, 74 — 5 ; orders 
seizure of Ormiston, 75 ; 



INDEX 



401 



Mary of Guise — continued. 

position strengthened at 
Leith, 76 ; Francis II. de- 
cides to send help to, 
77 ; reoccupies Edinburgh, 
80 ; awaiting arrival of 
Elbceuf, 87; wishes to re- 
tire to France, 87 ; sends 
forged letter from Chatel- 
herault to Francis II., 87 ; 
intercepted letter to Cardinal 
of Lorraine, 88 ; sends 
heralds to English forces and 
Duke of Norfolk, 96 ; sends 
heralds to Elizabeth, 97 ; 
takes refuge in Edinburgh 
Castle, 114 ; dying of dropsy 
114, 117, 121, 124 ; heroic 
figure, 114 ; intercepted 
letter to D'Oyssel, 115 ; 
negotiations with Monluc, 
114 — 15 ; dying farewell to 
rebellious nobles, 125 ; effect 
of death on war with Scot- 
land, 125, 128. Letters to, 
46 — 7, 49 — 50 ; letters from, 
69, 116 — 17 

Mary I., Queen of England, 1, 2, 
note, p. 4, 6, 7, 29, 33, 48, 82, 
112, note, p. 127, 181, 201, 
206, note, p. 323 

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, 
claims to crown of England, 
2, 112, 191, 220 ; beginning of 
rivalry with Elizabeth, 2, 3 ; 
secret treaty with France, 

33 ; influenced by House of 
Guise, 33, 37 ; quarters arms 
of England with those of 
France and Scotland at 
Henry II.'s instigation, 33 ; 
her delicate constitution, 

34 ; relations with Earl of 
Arran, 37 ; becomes Queen 
of France, 37 ; authority 
upheld in Scotland, 69 — 70 ; 
Elizabeth exonerates from 
blame, 98 — 102 ; position in 
matter of Scotland and rebel 
subjects, 106 — 11 ; anxious 
regarding her mother's situa- 
tion, 115 ; grief at her 
death, 126 ; refuses to sign 
Treaty of Edinburgh, 134, 
154 — 7, 186 — 8 ; on her 
Scottish subjects, 154 ; 

E.M.S. 



refuses to cease bearing 
arms of England, 157 ; grief 
at illness and death of her 
husband, 158 — 60 ; Throck- 
morton's tribute to, 160 ; 
disliked by Catherine de' 
Medici, 161 ; her matri- 
monial chances, 183 — 4 ; 
Scotland restores allegiance 
to, 184 ; mission of Lord 
James Stuart to, 184 ; dis- 
cusses religion with, 185 ; 
granted freedom of worship 
in Scotland and agrees to 
return, 185 ; advised by her 
uncle, 185 ; accepts Lething- 
ton's offer of service, 186 ; 
professes friendship for Eliza- 
beth, 186, 219 — 32, 352 ; 
her safe conduct refused by 
Elizabeth, 189 ; suggested 
as Elizabeth's successor, 
191 ; censures Knox and his 
book, 192 ; prepares for 
return to Scotland, 194, 196 ; 
receives Elizabeth's assur- 
ance of friendship, 195 — 6 ; 
interviews with Throckmor- 
ton, 196 — 203 ; departure 
from France, 203 — 4 ; bids 
farewell to her uncles, 204 ; 
her welcome to Scotland, 
205 ; dealings with Knox, 
205, 207, 213, 255 ; conduct 
approved in Scotland, 207 ; 
her plans for foreign match 
disapproved of by Elizabeth 
and Scotland, 210, 371 ; 
proposed match with Arran, 
210 — 11 ; receives first sug- 
gestions of Darnley match, 
215 — 17 ; her negotiations 
for revised Treaty of Edin- 
burgh, 219 ; proposals for 
meeting with Elizabeth, 
221, 227 — 8, 235 — 6, 244, 
319 ; Bothwell plot against, 
2 36> 255 ; friendly relations 
with Elizabeth, 235 — 8, 244 
— 6, 250, 256 — 7 ; coolness 
in, 317 ; friendship renewed, 
318—19, 337— 41 ; plot 
to proclaim Queen of 
England, 242, 265 ; dis- 
cusses with Randolph, Eliza- 
beth and the House of Guise, 

D D 



402 



INDEX 



Mary Stuart — continued. 

25 1 — 3 ; Knox her implac- 
able foe, 253 — 5 ; offers to 
act as intermediary between 
Elizabeth and House of 
Guise, 264, 270 ; her part in 
Chastelard affair, 266 — 9, 
279, 281 ; seeks acknow- 
ledgment of right to English 
succession, 270, 334 ; further 
marriage plans, 272, 325 — 7, 
330 — 1 ; refuses Earl of 
Arran and Duke of Ferrara, 
273 ; Dudley marriage pro- 
posed to, 276 — 8, 306 ; 
negotiations for Spanish and 
Austrian matches, 273 — 9, 
281 — 2, 286 — 91, 315 — 16, 
329 — 30, 370 — 1 ; Darnley 
marriage again brought for- 
ward, 290 ; Dudley her 
suitor, 307 ; reception of 
suit and question of succes- 
sion, 307 ; sends Melville to 
Elizabeth and Lady Lennox, 
318 ; further negotiations 
and delays for Dudley mar- 
riage, 318 — 20, 327, 334 — 6, 
348, 350, 352 — 7, 361 ; Mel- 
ville's praise of, 321 — 3 ; 
Darnley match fore- 
shadowed, 327, 333 ; her 
doings at Edinburgh, 336, 
338 ; discusses marriage 
plans and Elizabeth's atti- 
tude thereto with Randolph, 
337 — 4 1 > fi^t meeting with 
Darnley, 345 ; friendship 
for and festivities at Edin- 
burgh, 346 ; offended at 
Bothwell's infamous asper- 
sions, 347 ; declares him a 
rebel, 348 ; her pastimes at 
Edinburgh and Leith, 349 — 
52 ; Randolph's praise of, 
356 ; nurses Darnley, 358, 
375 ; her infatuation for, 
358, 378—80, 382, 387; 
suspicious of Elizabeth, 360 
— 1 ; asks Elizabeth's ap- 
proval of marriage to Darn- 
ley, 373 — 4 ; Spanish ap- 
proval of marriage, 373 — 4 ; 
creates Darnley Earl of Ross, 
375 ; Scottish disapproval 
of marriage, 375 — 86 ; seeks 



alliance with France, 381 ; 
secretly married to Darnley, 
385 ; proclaims him King, 
386 — 7 ; her official mar- 
riage, 388 — 9 ; her tragic 
fate, 390. Letters to, 195 
196, 245 — 6 ; letters from, 
160 — 1, 185 — 6, 219 — 21, 
327—8, 335—6 
Mauvissiere, M., 308, 326, 354, 

383 
Melville, Sir James, objections to 
Duke Hans Casimir as Eliza- 
beth's suitor, note, p. 8, 302 ; 
in service with Elector of 
Palatine, 302 ; bears por- 
trait of Elector to Eliza- 
beth, 302 ; page to Mary 
Stuart in her childhood, 317 
— 18; returns to her service, 
318 ; negotiations for Darn- 
ley match, 318 ; memoirs 
quoted describing Elizabeth 
and her Court, 302, 318 — 23, 

345 
Mewtas, Sir Peter, 168, 219 
Monluc, John de, Bishop of 

Valence, 108, 114 — 17, 121, 

I43> 157. 233 
Montague, Viscount, 362 
Montmorenci, Duke de, Con- 
stable of France, 25 — 30, 
161, 354 
Morton, Earl of, 138, 155, 375, 

389 
Murray, Earl of, see Stuart, 

James 
Murray of Tullibardine, 347, 348 



Nemours, Duke de, 22, 214 

Neville, Sir Henry, 153 

Nichols, John, 317 

Noailles, M. de, 29, 46, 49 — 50, 
76, 95, 97, 138. Letters 
from, 49 — 50, 77 — 9 

Norfolk, Duke of, receives French 
Ambassadors, 26 ; enmity 
towards Dudley, 65, 67, 135, 
142, 172 ; favours Austrian 
marriage, 66 ; dispatched 
to the border, 88 ; concludes 
Treaty of Berwick, 94 ; 
questioned by Mary of Guise, 
96 ; at Newcastle, 112, 114, 
116, 118 ; censures Sir John 



INDEX 



403 



Norfolk, Duke of — continued. 

Croft, 121; Elizabeth on 
bad terms with, 172 ; sum- 
moned to Elizabeth, 215 ; 
favours nomination of Lady- 
Catherine Grey to succes- 
sion, 247 ; admitted to the 
Council, 248 ; proposed as 
suitor for Mary Stuart, 330 
— 1. Letters to, 33, 34, 89 — 
92, 118 — 19, 120 — 1 ; letters 
from, 114, 116 

Northampton, William Parr, 
Marquess of, 17, 26, 152, 
312, note, 323 

Northampton, Marchioness of, 
210, 323 and note, 324 

Northumberland, Duke of, see 
Dudley, John 

Northumberland, Earl of, see 
Percy, Sir Thomas. 

Nowell, Dr. Alexander, Dean of, 
St. Paul's, 361, 363 and 
note 

Ogilvy, of Boyne, Alexander, 

344 
Orleans, Duke of, see Charles IX. 
Ormiston, Laird of, see Cockburn, 

John 

Parker, Matthew, Archbishop 
of Canterbury, 32, 85, 266, 
270, 292, 301, 306. Letter 
from, 306 ; letter to, 270 

Parkhurst, Dr. John, Bishop of 
Norwich, 19 — 20, 138. 
Letter from, 19 — 20 

Parma, Duchess of, 64, 93 — 5, 
105, in, 232—3, 311. 
Letters to, 53 — 4, 96 — 8, 141 

—3. 317. 323—4 
Parry, Treasurer, 54, 167 
Pembroke, Earl of, 177, 235, 247, 

250, 312 
Percy, Sir Henry, afterwards 
eighth Earl of Northumber- 
land, 36, 125 
Percy, Sir Thomas, seventh 
Earl of Northumberland, 
49, 125, 215, 241, 256 
Petre, Sir William, 127 and note 
Philip II., King of Spain, fails to 
respond to Feria's warnings, 
2 ; decides to marry Eliza- 
beth of Valois, 3, 37 ; atti- 



tude towards Austrian mar- 
riage for Elizabeth, 13 — 14, 
52, 55, 59 — 60 ; instructions 
to Quadra, 38 ; religious 
troubles in Netherlands, 39, 
104 ; returns to Spain, 44, 
55, 230 ; Dudley's pretended 
friendship for, 54, 316 ; pro- 
fesses esteem for Elizabeth, 
61 ; eager to avoid warfare, 
63 ; anxiety at Elizabeth's 
policy, 86 ; Irish apply for 
help to, 92 ; refuses to join 
France in Scottish campaign 
103, no, 112 ; money diffi- 
culties, 104 ; promises ships 
and provisions to Francis II., 
116 — 17, 121 ; arbitration 
between France and England 
referred to, 136 ; half- 
hearted support of Dudley's 
marriage with Elizabeth, 
172 — 80, 316 ; policy when 
in England, 182 ; report of 
intention to poison Eliza- 
beth, 214 ; helps the House 
of Guise, 228 ; reported 
designs on Calais, 228, 249 ; 
hesitations regarding Mary 
Stuart's proposed marriage 
with Don Carlos, 276, 286 
— 9, 291 ; secret negotia- 
tions for, 286 — 9 ; refuses to 
accept Quadra's resignation, 
291 ; abandons idea of Mary 
Stuart's marriage with Don 
Carlos, 315 — 16, 371 ; re- 
ceives suggestion for mar- 
riage of Don Carlos to 
Elizabeth, 328 ; supports 
Darnley's marriage with 
Mary Stuart, 373, 374. 
Letters to, 3 — 5, 9 — n, 13 — 
14, 16—17, 21—5, 34—5. 38. 
— 9, 60—1, 65—7, 133—4. 
160 — 1, 163 — 72, 175 — 80, 
208 — 11, 214 — 16, 232 — 34, 
240 — 1, 247 — 50, 270 — 81, 
285—6, 289 — 91, 310 — 15, 
324 — 6, 328 — 9, 332 — 3, 
362 — 6, 368 — 73, 383—5- 
Letters from, 21, 94, 173 — 5, 
286—9 

Pickering, Sir William, 15 — 16, 
63—4, 209 

Pole, Arthur, 240 — 2 



404 



INDEX 



Pollard, Professor, 143, 227 

Pollen, Father, 385 

Pope, Sir Thomas, 12 

Poynings, 257 

Preyner, Baron, 51, 55, 77, 78 



Quadra, Alvero, Bishop of 
Aquila, Spanish Ambassa- 
dor in England, 17, 30 ; 
negotiations for Austrian 
marriage, 21 — 5, 48, 51 — 67 ; 
fears concerning Scottish 
rebellion, 37 — 9 ; opinions 
of Elizabeth, 39, 67, 231, 
292 ; relations with Lady 
Catherine Grey, 45 ; un- 
successful efforts to em- 
broil Philip with Elizabeth, 

92, 105 ; estimate of Dud- 
ley's character, 93 ; Dud- 
ley's negotiations with, 93 ; 
refuses to hear the French 
protest, no; comments on 
Treaty of Edinburgh, 133 
— 4 ; rumoured to be in the 
pay of the House of Guise, 
141 ; interviews with Cecil, 
141 — 2, 175 — 7 ; comments 
on death of Lady Robert 
Dudley, 142 ; opinion of 
Cecil, 142 — 3 ; negotiations 
for Dudley marriage with Sir 
Henry Sidney, 163 — 6 ; 
deceives Philip regarding 
Elizabeth, 167 ; dealings 
with Dudley, 168 — 9, 171 ; 
interview with Elizabeth, 169 
— 70, 179 — 80, 214 — 15, 232 
— 5 ; letters intercepted 
and betrayed by his secre- 
tary, 230 — 5 ; dealings with 
Arthur Pole, 241 ; inter- 
view with Elizabeth's Coun- 
cil, 248 — 50 ; dealings with 
Lethington, 271 — 81, 289 — 
90 ; asks Philip's leave to 
resign, 290 — 1 ; Philip's re- 
fusal, 291 ; deplores Philip's 
policy, 291 — 2 ; illness and 
death, 292 ; estimate of 
work and character, 292. 
Letters to, 173 — 5, 286 — 9 ; 
letters from, 17 — 19, 21 — 5, 
34—5- 38—9, 5i—9, 60—7, 

93, 96—8, 141— 3, 163—72, 



175 — 80, 208, 211, 214 — 16, 

229—35. 240—1, 247—50, 

270 — 81, 285 — 6, 289 — 91 



Rabenstein, Baron, 21 
Randan, M. de, 121 — 2, 157, 233 
Randolph, Sir Thomas, inter- 
view with Elizabeth, 34 — 5 ; 
sent to aid Arran, 37 ; ac- 
companies Arran to Scot- 
land, 49 ; cypher letters to 
and from during siege of 
Leith, 72 — 3 ; on state of 
rebel forces in Scotland, 93 ; 
interviews with Mary Stuart, 
236 — 8, 256 ; opinion of 
Knox, 254 ; discusses Mary 
and her marriage with Knox, 
254 — 5 ; hatred of Both- 
well, 256 ; shocked at 
Mary's behaviour, 267 ; 
sounds her on Dudley mar- 
riage, 306 — 7 ; carries mes- 
sages between Elizabeth and 
Mary, 326 — 7 ; appointed 
envoy at Berwick meeting, 
330 ; hopes for Leicester 
match and advice to him, 
334 ; acts as Leicester's 
intermediary with Mary, 335 ; 
negotiations for marriage, 
336—44, 346, 348—57 ; 
opinion of Darnley, 346, 358, 
379 — 81, 387 ; anger of 
Lethington and Murray at, 
351 — 3 ; bitterness against 
Lethington, 355 ; en- 

deavours to allay Mary's 
suspicions of Elizabeth, 360 
— 1 ; despair at failure of 
Leicester and prospects of 
Darnley marriage, 378 — 82 ; 
describes marriage of Mary, 
388 — 9. Letters from, 76, 
205 — 6, 221 — 2, 236 — 8, 250 
—7, 267—70, 307, 336—45. 
348—62, 374—5. 378—83, 
385—9 
Raylton, Mr., letter to, 70 — 2 
Rene, Marquis d' Elboeuf, 
youngest brother of Mary of 
Guise, 76, 81, 87, 97, 112, 
114 — 16, 204, 264 
Riccio, David, enters Mary 
Stuart's service as principal 



INDEX 



4°5 



Riccio, David — continued. 

bass singer in Royal Chapel, 

380 ; appointed her French 

secretary, 380 
Robsart, Amy, see Dudley, Lady 

Robert 
Ronsard, note, p. 269 
Rouen, loss of, 257 — 8 
Ruthven, third Baron, 89, 375, 

383 
Rutland, Earl of, 17 



Sackville, Sir Richard, 216 

Sackville, Lady, 216 

Sadler, Sir Ralph, 45, 72 — 3, 88, 

118. Letter to, 46 ; letters 

from, 72 — 3, 74 — 5 
St. John of Jerusalem, the Lord, 

151, 154 — 6 
Sandys, Dr. Edwin, Archbishop 

of York, 6 and note, 39 
Saxony, Duke of, 124 
Schifanoya, II, 25. Letter from, 

26—31 
Scory, Bishop of Hereford, 32, 

40 
Scrope, Sir Henry, 118 
Seton, Lord, 385 
Seton, Mary, 204 
Seurre, M. Michael de, protest to 

Queen Elizabeth, 106 — 11 
Shrewsbury, Earl of, letter to, 

139 
Shrewsbury, Countess of, 8 
Sidney, Sir Henry, 53, 66, 93, 163 
— 6, 168 — 9, 173 — 4, 176 — 7, 
229, 244, 308. Letter to, 

355—7 
Sidney, Lady, 53—5, 57, 59, 61 
Silva, Don Diego Guzman de, 
Dean of Toledo, appointed 
Spanish Ambassador in 
England, 309 ; interview 
with Elizabeth, 310 — 12 ; 
Elizabeth's regard for, 313 
— 1 5> 3 2 3 — 4 '• describes 
Elizabeth's visit to Cam- 
bridge, 317 ; on the rela- 
tions between Elizabeth and 
Mary Stuart, 317 — 18 ; dis- 
cusses religion with Eliza- 
beth, 325 ; writes to Philip 
regarding marriage of Mary 
Stuart, 329 — 30 ; discusses 
Elizabeth's illness, 332 ; on 



the position of Robert Dud- 
ley, 332 — 3 ; on Elizabeth's 
religious views, 333, 364 ; 
praise of Sir William Cecil, 
333 ; involved in plots con- 
cerning Mary Stuart's mar- 
riage, 333 ; at the Queen's 
supper party, 362 — 4 ; dis- 
cusses marriage with Eliza- 
beth, 364 — 6 ; interviews 
with Lethington, 368 — 73 ; 
interview with Randolph, 
383 — 4. Letters from, 310 
—15. 317. 323—6, 328—30, 
332—3, 362—6, 368—73, 
383 — 5 ; letters to, 315 — 16, 

373—4 
Smith, Sir Thomas, 258, 263, 271, 
303 — 4, 326, 335. Letters 
to, 263 — 5, 304 — 6, 308 — 9, 
331—2 
Somers, Mr., 263, 303, 308 
Somerset, Anne, Duchess of, 297 
Stafford, Thomas, 182 
Strickland, Miss Agnes, 87 
Stuart, Henry, Lord Darnley, 
first proposals as suitor to 
Mary Stuart, 215 — 17 ; a 
rallying point for Scottish 
nobles, 217 ; suggested as 
Elizabeth's successor, 290 ; 
Elizabeth's favours to, 290, 
316; at Elizabeth's Court, 
310, 312, 316, 319 ; negotia- 
tions for his going to Scot- 
land, 318, 330 ; difficulties 
over permit, 327 — 9 ; pro- 
fesses attachment to Philip 
II., 329 ; further prospects 
of marriage, with Mary, 327, 
330 — 1, 334 ; Randolph 
opposes and deplores his 
coming to Scotland, 344 — 5, 
354' 357 '< sen t to Scotland, 
334, 344 ; first meeting with 
Mary, 345 ; professes anxiety 
for Dudley's friendship, 345 
— 6 ; with Mary at Edin- 
burgh, 346 ; at Leith, 352 ; 
nursed by Mary, 358, 373 ; 
her infatuation for, 358 — 60, 
377 — 83,387,390; character 
of, 359- 36i, 372, 375—6 5 
Mary sets her heart on mar- 
riage with, 367 — 8 ; Eliza- 
beth's anger at, 366 — 7, 384 ; 



406 



INDEX 



Stuart, Henry — continued. 

Philip II. approves, 373 — 4 ; 
Scottish nobles disapprove, 
374, 386 ; created Earl of 
Ross, 375 ; arrogant be- 
haviour, 378 — 81, 386 ; 
hatred of in Scotland, 381 ; 
created Earl of Albany, 385 ; 
secret marriage to Mary, 
385 ; proclaimed King of 
Scotland, 386, 388 ; his 
unworthiness, 390. Letter 
from, 346 

Stuart, James, Earl of Murray, 
raids Bothwell's house, 76 ; 
Cecil arranges conference 
with, 89 ; dispatched to 
Mary Stuart in France, 184 ; 
discusses religion with, 185 ; 
alleged treachery to, 185 ; 
supports Mary's claims as 
successor to Elizabeth, 188 
— 91 ; letter to Elizabeth, 
189 — 91 ; at Mary's home- 
coming, 205 ; supports Mary 
against religious bigotry, 
211 — 13 ; increase of power, 
255 ; fears for Mary's repu- 
tation, 269 ; in council with 
Mary, 279 ; discusses Dud- 
ley match with, 307 ; sent 
to Berwick, 318, 330 — 1, 
336 ; approval of Dudley 
match, 334 ; Mary Stuart's 
assurances of friendship with 
Elizabeth to, 338 ; Randolph 
confides in, 341 ; requests 
Darnley to attend Mary, 
346 ; threatened by Both- 
well, 348 ; discusses Leices- 
ter match with Randolph, 
351 — 3 ; hopes for arrange- 
ment of Dudley marriage, 
355 ; Mary Stuart's sus- 
picions of, 375, 380 ; hates 
Ruthven for his sorceries, 

383 
Stuart, Lord Robert, 352 
Sturmius, John, 222. Letter to, 

223 — 6 
Surian, Michael, 158 — 9, 181 — 2, 

186—7 
Surrey, Earl of, 64 
Sussex, Earl of, 8, 18, 26, 92, 362. 

Letter to, 194 
Swinburne, Algernon, 267 



Tamworth, Groom of the 

Chamber, 248 
" Thirty-Nine Articles," publica- 
tion of, 266 
Throckmorton, Sir Nicholas, com- 
ments on Bothwell, 75, 236 ; 
message to Francis II., 87 ; 
advice to Cecil, 102 — 3 ; 
describes Quadra as in pay 
of House of Guise, 141 ; 
troubles in Paris, 150, 154 
— 7 ; negotiations re Treaty 
of Edinburgh, 156 — 7 ; on 
Mary Stuart's grief at her 
husband's death, 158 — 9 ; 
interview with Admiral 
Coligny, 162 ; interview 
with Spanish Ambassador, 
162 ; snubbed by Cecil, 162 
— 3 ; interview with Mary 
Stuart, 196 — 203 ; suspects 
Philip II. of designs on 
Calais, 228 ; goes to New- 
haven (Havre), 264 and 
note ; quarrels with Sir 
Thomas Smith, 303 ; ne- 
gotiations for peace, 303 ; 
return to England, 304, 308 ; 
sent to Scotland to prevent 
Darnley marriage, 345, 366 
— 7> 373 '• interview with 
Mary Stuart and Council, 
375 — 7 ; advises Elizabeth 
of Mary Stuart's intentions, 
377 — 8 ; failure to prevent 
Darnley marriage and return 
to England, 380. Letters 
to, 119 — 20, 150 — 3, 188 — 9, 
217 — 9, 257 ; letters from, 
35—7. J 54— 7. 159—62, 196, 
204, 225, 229, 375— 8 

Tremayne, 132 

Troyes, Treaty of, 308 

Turberville, James, Bishop of 
Exeter, 84 — 5. Letter from, 
82—3. 

Turner, Dawson, note, p. 349 

Turner, Dr., 171, 232, 234 

Uniformity of Common Prayer, 
Act for, note, p. 19 

Valence, Bishop of, see Monluc, 

John de 
Vendome, Duke of, 214, 322 



INDEX 



407 



Venetian Ambassadors in France, 
the, letter to Doge and 
Senate, 122 — 4 

Waldegrave, Sir Edward, 178 

and note 
Warwick, Earl of, see Dudley, 

Ambrose 
Wemyss, Laird of, 345 
Wharton, Sir Thomas, 178 and 

note 



Westmoreland, Earl of, 215 
Williams, Speaker Thomas, 

Queen's answer to, 261 — 3 
Winchester, Marquess of, 135, 

139. 247 
Winter, William, Master of 

Ordnance, 88, 95, 98, 114 
Wotton, Dr. Nicholas, Dean of 

Canterbury, 121, 126 — 8, 

234 — 5. Letters from, 124 

—5, 129—31 



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